


The Secret Life of Teachers

by tabine



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alcohol, Characters and relationships to be added, F/M, Freeform, Implied Sexual Content, Stream of Consciousness, no really it's bad sometimes, twenty-somethings doing things that twenty-somethings do idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-08-24 13:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8373688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabine/pseuds/tabine
Summary: Romance is a bit difficult to do when you spend a majority of your time within fifty feet of the object of your affections and somehow still don't quite understand that you're falling in love with them, if only because being a full-time high school teacher while taking graduate school courses takes precedence over everything else. A Nejiten high school teachers AU.





	1. My Neighbor the Serial Killer

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  (Art by [gracie-sketchy-cat](http://gracie-sketchy-cat.tumblr.com/post/168329536525/nejiten-secret-life-of-teachers-my-art-tribute) over on tumblr.)

 

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**
> 
> **Chapter 1: My Neighbor the Serial Killer**
> 
> _Dissection kits and coffee and impromptu beer runs, oh my._
> 
> Self-indulgent teacher fic is go! This story is largely a slice-of-life type of thing, but I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless. 
> 
> 24102106 | 02122016 | 4011 | [AO3](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F8373688%2Fchapters%2F19182619&t=Zjk5MGQ2YWY4YmMzMWQ3MjhjMGNkN2E3MmExODNjMjZmZTJlNTM2MixSVGtuUlluSg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156229356105%2Fchapter-1-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [FFN](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanfiction.net%2Fs%2F12204170%2F1%2FThe-Secret-Life-of-Teachers&t=ZTQ1ZTRhZDVkNzM1ZDQwNWRiZDE3NGNlMjExMzdlMjdiZWI1OGU3YixSVGtuUlluSg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156229356105%2Fchapter-1-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [tumblr](https://shitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com/post/156229356105/chapter-1-the-secret-life-of-teachers)

**—**

Sometimes, Tenten swears the universe hates her. Really, she does. Because if it didn't, there'd be no reason for her to find herself standing in the fourth-floor hallway of her building, just outside her apartment, with an assortment of brand new and shiny-sharp dissection tools scattered around her feet in the presence of her new neighbor — specifically, the one she sees leaving the complex shirtless at six o'clock every morning for his daily jog, when she's still half-awake and on her second cup of coffee in an attempt to be partially coherent for work.

(Not that she'd been staring at him on purpose or anything.)

And yet here she is, frozen in time outside her door with her key in the lock and the contents of no fewer than ten entire kits of dissection tools littering the ugly paisley carpet of the hallway as the aforementioned neighbor stares at her from where he's just emerged from the stairwell, expression one of mild confusion and potential concern once he takes stock of just how many scalpels and forceps seem to be embedded in the floor.

Considering that the majority of the dissection tools have fallen directly in front of his apartment, which happens to be right next door to hers, she decides that his concern is rather justified.

It does nothing to alleviate Tenten's embarrassment, of course, but at least he's wearing a shirt, now, for which she is immensely thankful, and she supposes that maybe the entire situation isn't as entirely hopeless as she'd initially thought. It's enough to convince her that maybe she can somehow turn everything around in the hope that any future encounters between them won't end with him running away from her as fast as he possibly can, so without really thinking, and in what she hopes is a light-hearted and conversational way, she tells him, "I swear to God, I am _not_ a serial killer."

It's as the words are leaving her mouth that she realizes what she's said, though already it is far too late to take it back. Instead, fearing that she may embarrass herself even further in front of her new neighbor as she watches him watch _her_ , Tenten clamps her jaw shut tightly in abject mortification, and waits for the ground beneath her to open up and swallow her whole.

(The likelihood of this happening is extremely slim, of course, considering that they live on the fourth floor, but she decides that in this instance, that particular detail hardly matters.)

_Awkward_ , she decides, is the only word that aptly describes the silence that stretches on between them, and Tenten is more than prepared for her neighbor to either get away from her as fast as he can or call the police and report her as some sort of criminal on the loose. Or maybe even both. For some reason, however, fortune decides to smile on her when he crosses his arms over his chest and looks her in the eye with an expression of mild interest.

"Don't worry," he replies in turn. "I figured as much."

(And it is at that moment, when she realizes that it may be possible she hasn't left a bad impression on him after all, that Tenten thinks the universe may not hate her as much as she thought it did.)

**—**

Hiss name is Hyuuga Neji, she learns twenty minutes later when she invites him over for coffee in return for his assistance in picking up the mess of her assorted scalpels and probes, and oddly enough he seems to believe her statement about not being a serial killer. He also thinks that it's terribly generous of her to use her own money to order so many new high-end dissection kits for her anatomy and physiology students to use in the upcoming school year. When he asks if she's a teacher at the local high school two blocks over, and she responds in the affirmative, Neji says that even though he's never had much of a stomach for dissections (the thought of cutting into something that had once been alive without the intention of eating or cooking it has always made his stomach a little weak, he admits, and the smell of formaldehyde certainly doesn't help) he looks forward to hearing that they're put to good use over the school year nonetheless.

"I'm the new physics teacher there," he continues by way of explanation when he catches sight of the puzzled look Tenten gives him over the rim of her own mug of coffee. "I officially begin at the start of the new school year."

She hums in response around a mouthful of black coffee before swallowing. "You'll like it there, I think," she tells him, because she certainly does. "I definitely do, and this is going to be my fourth year there."

He nods, takes a slow, pensive sip of his coffee, then. "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Twenty-seven." The way he asks makes her guess that he'd tried to phrase the question in such a way as to not offend her, and while Tenten appreciates the thought, she isn't terribly offended, and she says just as much. "I know I have a baby face, so I get that a lot."

Neji smiles at her comment. "We're the same age, then," he replies with a thoughtful nod, "though I've never had people think I'm younger than I actually am."

Tenten makes a face. "It's _terrible_ ," she says. "We got a new security guard last year, and one day he chased me all the way down the hall after he saw me leaving the teacher's lounge because he thought I was a student out of class without permission."

From the adjacent couch, Neji raises one dark, elegant eyebrow in polite disbelief. "Really?"

"He followed me all the way back to my classroom so that I could grab my wallet and show him my driver's license — even my name tag wasn't enough for him, apparently."

This time Neji laughs, and Tenten decides she likes the sound of it. "I am so sorry."

She waves a hand dismissively. "Yeah, well, my main consolation is that by the time I'm in my fifties, I'll hopefully look like I'm only thirty, at most."

"Most assuredly worth it, in my opinion." He drains the rest of his coffee and gets up to put the cup in the kitchen sink (she doesn't question how he knows where the kitchen is — he'd passed it on his way in, and his apartment is the mirror image of hers anyway) ignoring her protests from the couch as he does so. "The coffee was great, by the way."

Tenten follows him into the kitchen, rinses her own empty mug and sets it in the sink. "I should be thanking you for helping me with the kits, honestly," she responds, "and especially for not thinking I'm a serial killer."

He smiles again and shrugs noncommittally, making his way to the door. "In that case, you are very much welcome." Neji leans down to slip on his shoes, and when he straightens again he's looking at her in a way that's vaguely friendly. "Thanks again for the coffee," he says, one hand on the door knob. There's a smile lingering at the corners of his mouth, and Tenten decides she like that, too. "I'll see you around sometime."

"Yeah," she replies with a smile of her own. "See you later."

And that, really, is how this story starts.

**—**

They see each other around a lot, after that, and it doesn't take long for them to move from being "acquaintances" to "friends".

Well. She likes to think of them as such, at least, if the number of times she finds herself having dinner at his place is any indication.

It starts quite by accident, about two weeks after that first meeting with the dissection kits, when she'd invited him over for coffee: she's been earning some extra cash teaching a biology course for the summer school curriculum, and with most of her time divided between work, grading, lesson plans, graduate school coursework, and the gym, Tenten's developed a bad habit of forgetting to do important things like buy groceries until her apartment is entirely void of anything edible. So when she comes home late one night to discover that her refrigerator is empty, she's quite surprised to find Neji at her door a few minutes later with a six-pack of beer and an offer for dinner.

She can't quite help but look up at him as though he is an angel descended from on high. "How did you know?" she asks. Then her eyes settle on the beer. "Is that for me?"

"No," Neji replies flatly. "I just got back from a beer run, and I was walking past your door when I heard you complaining about how you didn't have anything to eat and were certain you'd die of starvation by the time any takeout you ordered finally arrived." He raises an eyebrow (he's really good at doing that, Tenten realizes) and there's a smirk on his lips. "You're very loud and oddly specific when you're hungry."

Tenten huffs indignantly and folds her arms over her chest. "Well, you'd be hungry, too, if you hadn't had a proper meal since breakfast." And then she purses her lips thoughtfully. "Thanks for the offer, though — I'll be over in just a minute."

A little over three minutes pass, actually, by the time she finally makes her way over, but Neji doesn't seem to care too much about that. He does, however, look curiously between her and the twelve-pack she sets on his kitchen counter before his expression settles into one of vague indifference. "Why am I not surprised that your apartment is entirely out of food, but not alcohol?"

"Because I prioritize: tomorrow is Saturday and I don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn during summer vacation for once, so I am justified in taking advantage of it in order to chill. _Duh_." She's opened the box and stuck about half the cans into the fridge before popping the tab on one and taking a long, indulgent sip from it. "Besides, you're letting me eat here for free. I couldn't just waltz in and drink all your booze, especially when I know you just went out to buy some and I'm already here with the sole purpose of consuming everything you have that's even remotely edible."

"How considerate of you," Neji tells her, but he accepts the can Tenten offers all the same, takes a large sip before setting it down on the counter and moving to mix something in a pot on the stove.

Tenten takes it upon herself to find a seat while she watches Neji cook, and decides that the counter behind her — the one furthest away from the stove — does an excellent job of getting that done. "So, what are we having?" she asks, swinging her legs idly and enjoying the warmth of the kitchen on her bare skin. It's already the beginning of August, the tail-end of summer, and before long it will soon be autumn, and time for jeans and sweaters. "It smells great."

"I hope you weren't expecting a five-star experience." Neji takes another mouthful of beer and shrugs. "It's just fried rice."

"I'm not picky," Tenten assures him brightly. "I'll eat just about anything."

Neji smirks at her from the other side of the kitchen. "Somehow, I don't doubt that." Of course, she's not impressed by that, and when she lets him know as much by nonchalantly flipping him off while simultaneously chugging down as much beer as she can without seriously hurting herself, it doesn't seem like he is either, especially when his only response is to level a half-hearted glare at her and say, "I hope you realize I was under no obligation to invite you over for dinner."

She rolls her eyes, then, and with as much sarcasm as she can muster replies, "For which I am eternally grateful.", complete with a half-bow at her waist. Still, there had been a note of genuine appreciation in her voice as she said it, and Tenten sneaks a look at Neji over the edge of her beer to gauge his reaction.

He doesn't say anything, however, instead opting to simply smirk at her, and she narrows her eyes in response.

"What?"

"You're not trying to seduce me, are you?" he asks before turning around to shut off the stove, grab two plates from the cupboard behind him, and she almost spits out her beer at the question.

It takes Tenten a moment to regain her composure while Neji piles their plates with rice (because of the choked spluttering) and a moment more for her to join him at the small dining table (because on her way she grabs another two beers from the fridge as an afterthought while he reclaims his first one from where he's left it beside the stove — she's already finished hers).

"Obviously not," she informs him primly, once she manages to find her voice, and slides into her seat. "It's just that you might be the only person in this entire building who isn't terrified of me or thinks I'm some kind of weirdo, so." She shrugs and picks up her fork. "Yeah."

"I see," Neji says with a contemplative nod, before something seems to occur to him and he looks at her carefully with narrowed eyes. "And why would all the other tenants of this building be scared of you?"

The look she fixes him with, then, is almost terrifying in its seriousness. "You mean the fact that I keep a stock of sharp and potentially lethal objects in my apartment didn't tip you off earlier?"

**—**

When she and Neji walk into the school library together on the last Wednesday before the end of summer break for the annual pre-school year staff meeting mandated by the district that no one ever really wants to go to, the last thing Tenten expects is for Ino and Temari to corner her in the hallway afterwards on her way to her classroom.

Obviously, that is exactly what happens.

"Who is _that_ ," Ino begins, "and how long have you been sleeping with him?"

Beside her, Temari tries her very best to not seem interested at all in the discussion at hand, and fails terribly in the attempt when she adds, "And why didn't you tell us?"

For a moment, Tenten isn't sure how to respond, or to what. Then, and with no small amount of surprise, she realizes who they're referring to, and the thought is so _weird_ to her that she can't help the disbelief in her voice when she asks, "Who, _Neji_?"

Ino gapes at her, and the sight is so hilarious it's all Tenten can do to not laugh in the other woman's face. "You're already on a first name basis with him?" she all but shrieks. Temari winces. "Since when?"

"He's my neighbor," Tenten replies simply. "Moved in a couple of weeks ago. We've been hanging out a lot."

Temari looks at her curiously, then. "And how naked were you guys when you were 'hanging out'?" She even uses air-quotes.

_Air-quotes!_

"He's my neighbor," Tenten repeats firmly. "We're just friends."

Ino doesn't seem to buy it, but at least she takes a step back, even if it is to give Tenten a critical, appraising once-over she might have found impressive if she weren't so incredibly annoyed at being on the receiving end of it at that very moment. "If you're dressed like that whenever you guys are 'hanging out'," Ino begins — and there are those damned air-quotes _again_ — "I can definitely see why."

Tenten blinks, ignores the air-quotes. And then she scowls, because she's thinks her outfit (a white sleeveless blouse, her favorite pair of high-waisted skinny jeans, and the worn pair of deep red ballet flats she's had for years but can't quite bear to throw away) is pretty cute, even though it is rather simple and she'd chosen it solely based on the comfort it offered. "It's summer, and I'm busy enough as it is, so excuse _you_ if I'm not getting dressed up to drink beer and watch shitty ninja movies with the only person in my building willing to hang out with me." She folds her arms over her chest, shifts her weight to one hip as she looks from Ino to Temari expectantly. "Well? Are we done here? I have a classroom to finish setting up, you know."

Ino opens her mouth and gives her a look that clearly says she expects to continue this conversation later, but Temari, at least, nods, waves her hand dismissively —"Yeah, yeah," she says, "go on, your weird Den of Science awaits." — and Tenten is making her way down the familiar hallways to the building's science wing before either of them can come up with another reason to stop her.

The interrogation she'd faced regarding the nature of her relationship with Neji fades quickly from her mind soon after she finds herself in the peace and comfort of her own classroom, at least, but it's only hours later that Tenten realizes she should have come up with some way of defending her classroom from Temari's blunt, if honest, description of it.

After all, Tenten's classroom had nothing on it in terms of apparent weirdness when compared to _Shino's_.

**—**

Here are some of the student body's favorite topics of discussion concerning the staff of their local public high school, in no particular order.

  1. Principal Umino is totally dating the new district superintendent, who may or may not be a ninja because of the way he seems to always show up in random places unannounced and the fact that no one has actually seen his face.
  2. There is a very good chance that the art teacher is an international spy working undercover.
  3. If her interactions with the new physics teacher are any indication, Miss Tenten might not be coffee-and-protein-drink-sexual after all.



**—**

"You're taking AP Physics this year, right? With Mr. Hyuuga?"

"He's new this year, isn't he? I hope he's a good teacher."

"Like that matters — have you _seen_ him?"

Chatter among students at the beginning of class was something Tenten had long ago gotten used to: gossip is a standard of the high school environment, particularly among the juniors and seniors of her Anatomy & Physiology classes, and it helped students expend some of their excess energy before they had to settle down and focus for class. It was mostly harmless, anyway, and as she takes a sip of her coffee and grabs her class roster for second period, Tenten doesn't think much of it until her students' focus shifts from the physics teacher across the hall to _her_ instead.

"Hey, Miss T," one of her students begins, "how well do you know Mr. Hyuuga?"

The last thing Tenten expects on the first day of the school year is to face the Spanish Inquisition, so when her anatomy students — many of whom she'd had in previous years as freshman and sophomores in her regular biology classes, and so already have a certain degree of familiarity with her — decide to fill the remaining time before the start of class with questions about Neji, she is rather taken aback.

The flood of questions that follow leave her feeling vaguely overwhelmed.

"We saw you guys walking in from the teacher's parking lot together — did he give you a ride to school?"

"How long have you known each other?"

"Is Mr. Hyuuga a model?"

Somehow (and she's not entirely sure how she does it) Tenten manages to deflect the rest of their questions with half-hearted jokes and references to _Monty Python_ , but it doesn't make it any less awkward, and when the rest of the class trickles in and the final bell signaling the start of class goes off, she only barely manages to hide her relief as she calls for attention and begins the standard first-day-of-school routine of introducing herself and the course and getting to know her students. That's the trickiest part of being a teacher, being able to converse easily with students and have a good relationship with them while still maintaining and enforcing her position as an authority figure. It doesn't help that the questions continue in her next anatomy class after lunch, either, or the fact that many of her juniors and seniors _also_ have Neji as a teacher for either regular physics or its advanced placement level equivalent. That his classroom is directly across the hall from hers, only serves to complicate the matter even further, and by the time the school day ends, Tenten is absolutely mentally exhausted.

"Did you know," she begins as she and Neji are making their way to the parking lot after school, "most of my students are convinced that you're a supermodel?"

"Really." He doesn't seem particularly surprised by the question, and Tenten wonders just how many times he's had someone ask him that before. "That's interesting."

She nods, reaches into her purse and digs around for her keys. "Yeah, dude; I swear, it was like the freaking Spanish Inquisition."

Neji nods. " _No one expects the Spanish Inquisition_ ," he intones sagely through his nose, and Tenten lets out a very undignified snort at that.

**—**

The rest of the first week of school passes by uneventfully in terms of unexpected questions (the students had stopped asking for the most part, after that first day) and when Friday finally rolls around, Tenten finds herself in Neji's classroom during lunch, doing her best to convince him to make an appearance at the football game later that evening.

"Why?" he asks from behind his desk after swallowing a mouthful of herring soba. "Are you going?"

" _Obviously_ ," she says, tossing her carton of leftovers from last night's Chinese food across the classroom and into the trash bin beside Neji's desk. "It's the first football game of the school year! All the teachers go, for that and the homecoming game. It's tradition!"

Neji does not seem convinced. "Really."

Tenten scowls at him. "Come on — you're new, here. It'll be good for you to go. The kids already think you've got a stick up your butt as it is. If they see you loosen up, I guarantee that they'll think more of you." She folds her arms over her chest, then, and leans toward him conspiratorially. "Plus, all the teachers go to Sharktooth afterwards, and going to that is _definitely_ worth it: Umino covers each round of shots for the _entire night_."

The promise of free alcohol has the intended result, and Tenten grins knowingly when Neji puts on a show of sighing and fixing her with a long-suffering expression. " _Fine_ ," he says, "if I have to, then I suppose I'll make an appearance after all."

The bell rings, then, signaling the end of lunch and the start of the next period, and Tenten rolls her eyes as she stands up and grabs the remnants of her lunch. "We'll get a cab," she assures him, glancing quickly at the door to make sure no students have entered the classroom yet. "And don't forget to wear red and white!"

It's then that students begin trickling in through the door, and Neji shoos Tenten out the classroom as he orders his impeccably-neat desk in preparation for his next class. "Just get out," he says, but as she turns to walk away she doesn't miss the smile on his lips, and somehow the sight of it keeps her in good spirits for the rest of the day — winning the game and having Iruka buy everyone rounds and rounds of celebratory shots at the bar hours later is simply the icing on the cake.


	2. Six Degrees of Separation

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**
> 
> **Chapter 2: Six Degrees of Separation**
> 
> _In which everyone seems to know each other, somehow, and no one is particularly surprised._
> 
> Added and extrapolated on the section with the corporate party, in addition to the standard of fixing typos and formatting errors and the like — somehow, that bumped this chapter’s word count up something like seven-hundred words. Whoops.
> 
> 24102016 | 23012017 | 4115 | [AO3](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F8373688%2Fchapters%2F19202935&t=OGE1MWVhYTE5NGIzOWY5ZmJlOGJiOGFiZDJkZmYzYjI5NmFjOWE5NCxYYmhTSDlQTg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230183205%2Fchapter-2-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [FFN](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanfiction.net%2Fs%2F12204170%2F2%2FThe-Secret-Life-of-Teachers&t=NDMyNjU5ODEzYzM1OTY2YTg0M2U4ZjgyNmU0MzhiM2EyM2FkYzkzYixYYmhTSDlQTg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230183205%2Fchapter-2-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [tumblr](https://shitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com/post/156230183205/chapter-2-the-secret-life-of-teachers)

 

**—**

Tenten is sitting on Neji's couch eating mint chocolate chip ice cream as she watches television in nothing but a sports bra and a pair of bike shorts when his cousins come to call one unseasonably warm Sunday morning in late September.

Counting the incident with Neji and the dissection kits from almost two months ago, it is perhaps the single most mortifying moment she has ever experienced.

She knows one of them, for starters, though every single one of the handful of times Tenten's actually interacted with Hinata in any capacity, they'd both been dressed in business-casual and had presented themselves as upstanding and responsible adults who contributed positively to the community. Compared to Tenten's own state of attire, however, Hinata (who is an English teacher at one of the middle schools in the district) is still dressed quite well: she's wearing a pretty knee-length sundress, as is the younger woman beside her that she just sort of assumes is Hinata's sister because of how similar they look, and Tenten feels terribly underdressed even though she knows she really shouldn't be.

The part about being a proper adult, however, is in her opinion rather open to interpretation.

(It's her fault, anyway, because when Tenten had come over twenty minutes earlier with the draft of one of her papers for a grad course she'd needed him to proofread, Neji _had_ made sure to inform her that his cousins were on their way to pick him up so they could attend a "family event" scheduled for that day, and she'd decided that she hadn't particularly cared about that at the moment; what she cares about _now_ , however, is an entirely different thing altogether.)

So Tenten does the only thing she can think to do, and pulls her spoon out of her mouth, and waves it in a companionable sort of way at the two women standing at the door.

"Hey, ladies," she says, hoping desperately that the situation can still be salvaged somehow — it had happened when she first met Neji in the hallway over the summer, after all, and there is no evidence to suggest that it might not happen again. "What's up?"

It's at that moment that Neji chooses to interrupt their thrilling exchange from his place at the dining table, tucked away in the corner by the kitchen and hidden from view of the front door by the expanse of drywall separating it from the main area of the apartment. "I'll be there in a moment," he calls to his cousins as he continues scanning over Tenten's paper with a critical eye. "Be nice."

Tenten scowls and flips him off with her free hand as she spoons another helping of ice cream into her mouth; there is no doubt in her mind that those words had been directed at her. Then she turns to look back at Neji's cousins, somewhat curious — in a vaguely self-deprecating sort of way — to know what they make of all _this_.

(With _this_ , of course, referring to their discovery of a strange woman in her late twenties lounging around half-naked on their cousin's couch while watching cartoons and eating ice cream directly out of the tub for breakfast without any apparent modicum of care or a sense of proper dietary habits.)

"G-good morning, Tenten," Hinata says. Her cheeks are flushed a very pretty shade of pink (but what does Hinata do that isn't pretty, somehow?) as she determinedly looks at a point above Tenten's left shoulder, and Tenten realizes, then, that maybe she should have sucked it up and put on a shirt before coming over despite being too lazy to do so earlier.

She also realizes that she's sprawled rather unceremoniously across the length of the couch — and eating ice cream at a quarter to ten in the morning — and Tenten tucks her legs under herself in a semblance of propriety, sets the tub of ice cream on the coffee table. "Please, take a seat," she says, gesturing to the space she's just cleared up beside her. "Sorry about that — when Neji said his cousins were coming over, I didn't think you'd get here so soon. Or that you were one of the cousins in question, Hinata."

Hinata takes a seat on the adjacent couch with her hands folded neatly in her lap, though her sister does choose to take a seat beside her in a way that reminds Tenten vaguely of a more graceful version of her previous ungainly sprawl. "Our fathers are identical twins," the younger woman explains, looking between Tenten and her cousin curiously. "I'm Hanabi, by the way. Hinata's younger sister."

"Pleased to meet you," Tenten says in turn, sort of wishing that she was wearing more clothes at the moment. Or at least not eating ice cream straight out of the tub.

A few moments of awkward silence pass before Hinata speaks. "I didn't expect to see you here, Tenten," she says softly.

Tenten shrugs. "I live in the apartment next door," she replies, somewhat surprised at the way Hinata's gentle tone has an almost calming affect on the tension that had begun knotting in her shoulders the moment of the sisters' arrival. Then again, it _was_ Hinata — she just had that sort of effect on people — but even so, having to explain her current relationship with Neji to people who suspected otherwise was starting to get a little tedious. "Neji said he'd proofread one of my grad school papers for me before he left for that family thing you guys have to do."

"We're coworkers," Neji's voice supplies from the dining table. "Also, Tenten: I've finished looking over your paper — your thesis is sound, but I'd work on strengthening your arguments a bit more. It makes your conclusion sound rather lackluster as a result."

All too eager for a reason to escape the awkward tension suffocating the air of the apartment, Tenten springs up, scoops up the tub of ice cream from the coffee table. "Awesome — thanks, Neji!" she says, padding barefoot into the kitchen to put the spoon in the sink and the ice cream back into the freezer before she makes her way to the dining table, picks up the draft and skims over the comments he's made with red pen across the margins of the paper in his neat, even writing. "I'll fix it up when I get back from the gym. Think you'd be able to take another look at this at some point before Wednesday?" It's easy for Tenten to ignore the elephant in the room when she's chattering away as though Hinata and her sister haven't just seen her eating ice cream half-naked on their cousin's couch.

"I can take a look at it when I get back tonight," Neji offers. There's a knowing smirk tugging at the edges of his mouth that Tenten doesn't like the look of at _all_ , and she just _really_ wishes she could smack him without contributing to the ideas no doubt taking shape in the sisters' minds.

Explaining that she and Neji were just friends and nothing more really _was_ starting to get tedious, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that, at that moment, doing so would very likely do much more harm than good.

(Defining exactly _what_ "harm" and "good" are supposed to be, however, is something Tenten isn't quite willing to touch with a ten-foot pole.)

Instead, she turns, smiles at him as charmingly as she's able as she walks back towards the door. "Let me know when you get back, and I'll come over after I finish cleaning and sharpening my dissection kits," she tells him, and Tenten knows for a fact that he doesn't miss the warning in her tone. To his cousins, she says, "I'll see you around, Hinata — and it was nice meeting you, Hanabi! Hope you guys have fun today."

Tenten shuts the door to Neji's apartment behind her when she leaves, but even then she can still hear the murmur of conversation that begins. It doesn't help at all when she's in her apartment proper: the walls are almost annoyingly paper-thin, and she can hear a voice (Hanabi's, probably) speaking quickly, followed intermittently by Neji's soft tenor and Hinata's gentle murmuring, and words like _how long_ and _girlfriend_ and _underwear_ being thrown about— and just _why_ did everyone seem to think that she and Neji were dating, anyway? — and Tenten stops in her apartment just long enough to grab her purse, car keys, and phone, and toss her freshly-proofread paper on the coffee table, sling her gym bag over one shoulder and slip on her shoes (and put on an old T-shirt she realizes only an hour later she'd stolen from Neji) before she leaves.

Maybe a few hours of intense cardio and extreme weight-lifting would help her forget the entire embarrassing ordeal.

**—**

On the Saturday following her awkward encounter with Hinata and Hanabi, Neji — who is currently out running errands of some sort — gives Tenten a call while she is in the middle of making herself a late lunch.

Their conversation goes a little bit like this.

"What are you doing this evening?"

"Not much, honestly. I'll probably get some more grading done, try to get a head start on some coursework, too. Maybe I'll even make some banana bread — I've got some bananas that look like they're going to go bad any day now, and I'd hate to just toss them. Why, what's up?"

"Could you perhaps be persuaded, somehow, to leave the thrilling world of academia and culinary activities for a few hours in favor of spending time in the company of stuffy, overbearing individuals whose mere existence gives the word _pretentious_ entirely new meaning?"

"Been there, done that — I hang out with you on a regular basis, don't I?"

"I was being serious, Tenten."

"So was I. But, seriously, I don't think I should, I have way too much to do — "

"There will be free food and an open bar."

" — but I can take care of all that later. I'll be there."

"I thought as much."

"Shut up, Hyuuga."

"Make sure you dress to impress; I'll pick you up at seven."

This is how Tenten manages to go from lounging around grading papers and working on graduate school coursework in a pair of old gray sweatpants she's had since high school to wearing a fancy red silk dress and matching heels she hasn't worn in months (and more makeup beyond her usual application of mascara and coverup to hide the bags beneath her eyes — she _had_ been told to "dress to impress", after all) at a Hyuuga Enterprises corporate dinner party; she still can't quite figure out how she'd managed to do all that in the span of four hours, however, even though she's been at the party for at least two, now, and is currently on her third cocktail of the night.

So she leans back against the bar, takes another liberal sip of her martini ( _Thank heavens for open bars_ , she thinks) and looks up at the man beside her from the corner of her eye. "Not that I don't mind having a reason to get dressed up for people who aren't students of mine or their parents, for once," she begins, "but exactly why am I here, again?"

Neji merely shrugs and looks at his glass of scotch contemplatively. "Hanabi told me to invite you," he says simply. "She's quite taken with you, you know."

"I've only interacted with her once before tonight, and I was half-naked and eating ice cream on your couch for most of it."

At that, Neji smirks. "I know, and she wouldn't stop talking about your abdominal muscles for the rest of the day. She still won't shut up about them, actually. It's quite annoying; you made quite the impression."

Tenten smiles knowingly up at him. "So I've heard — are you sure _you're_ not just sour because she thinks my abs are better than yours?" Her grin widens when Neji looks away from her, at that, and pointedly avoids answering her in favor of draining the rest of his scotch, and she mimics the action with her martini before musing, "Didn't realize your family was so well-off, though."

He stiffens, then, the action so imperceptible that she wouldn't have realized it had she not been spending so much time around him as of late, and she doesn't probe him further until he's able to formulate an answer on his own terms. "My uncle's family is," he begins slowly. "It's his company, technically, although my father had shares in it as well. After he died, Hiashi, my uncle — Hinata and Hanabi's father — became my legal guardian until I was eighteen and could legally possess whatever my father had left for me, but I'd had it with the company at that point."

She nods, unsure how to respond. "Is that why you went into teaching?" she asks, almost hesitantly.

"For the most part." Neji takes Tenten's empty glass from her hand, sets it down on the counter beside his and gestures to the bartender and asks for another round of drinks. "I had done a lot of tutoring while in high school. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and had been told I was very good at it — it seemed fitting, at the time, and I found it to be a much more attractive option than overseeing business mergers and the like."

There's more to the story, there, she can tell, but Neji seems reluctant to discuss it further, and she figures that the least she can do is drop the topic for now until he's ready to mention it again — the fact that he'd gone so far as to disclose anything about his familial situation at all speaks volumes about how much he must apparently trust her. Tenten does, however, lean into the heat of his body, almost unconsciously, as she tries to formulate a response; her dress doesn't offer her much at all in terms of warmth (even though it makes her ass look damn good, if she says so herself), and she is willing to shamelessly leech whatever heat he might have to offer. Neji seems to understand this, and says nothing as he adjusts himself to wrap an arm loosely around her shoulders and pull her closer.

"For what it's worth," she finally tells him when the bartender returns with their drinks (a cosmopolitan for her — how did Neji know she'd been craving one? — and another glass of scotch for him), "I think you're a terrific teacher."

"Why, thank you, Tenten — "

"Even if you have a giant stick up your butt most of the time."

Neji rolls his eyes at her, then, even as he tilts his chin down to look her fully in the eye. "And here I thought you were actually being nice for once."

She makes a face at him. "I'm always nice, you jerk — "

" — Tenten?"

" _Temari?!_ "

**—**

As it turns out, they know a lot of the same people.

So: Neji's cousin is Hinata, who Tenten knows vaguely through Sakura, one of Tenten's friends from college, and Shino, the other biology teacher currently employed at the high school, because Hinata is currently dating Sakura's childhood friend Naruto, while Shino and Hinata, in turn, are childhood friends. Tenten knows Sakura because of all the pre-med classes they'd taken together in undergrad before Tenten switched from that program to the secondary education one, and it's also thanks to Sakura that Tenten knew Ino before they began working at the same high school, once again courtesy of their days together as undergraduate students, and Ino's childhood family friend Shikamaru (who also happens to be Temari's not-boyfriend) once went on the same study-abroad trip to Japan in college as Neji, in addition to being currently employed by Neji's uncle's company as its chief financial advisor. Sakura is also dating Sasuke, who had gone to the same private high school as Neji and Sai (Ino's maybe-boyfriend) and Karin, who had been Tenten's roommate in college — that had certainly been an experience, to say the least — who is apparently one of Naruto's distant cousins, which is how Hinata knows her, and thus the last piece that completes the weird circle of stupidity.

When all of this information comes to light after she half-jokingly creeps through Neji's Facebook following her attendance of the Hyuuga corporate party, only to discover that they both actually know way too many of the same people, Tenten ends up with a headache and the overwhelming desire for a very strong drink.

"It _is_ a small world after all, isn't it?" she mumbles, setting Neji's laptop on the coffee table and gladly accepting the glass of red wine he presses into her hand with a wordless nod of thanks.

He settles himself beside her on the couch, takes a sip from his own glass. "Just don't sing the song," he tells her, and Tenten laughs weakly in response.

"I make no such promises."

**—**

"So, you and Neji seemed to be pretty chummy at the Hyuuga party last weekend."

Tenten absolutely does _not_ like the smug expression Temari's giving her, then, and decides that fighting fire with fire is an entirely acceptable course of action in this situation. "I'm surprised you noticed us at all," she says, spearing her salad with more force than is probably necessary. "Considering how busy you were sticking your tongue down Shikamaru's throat and all that, I mean."

The jab at her _obviously_ nonexistent relationship with Shikamaru causes Temari to choke on her chicken sandwich, and Tenten feels a little bad about that until the older woman manages to compose herself a few moments later and chokes out hoarsely, "Like you weren't thinking about doing the same thing to your man."

"I was _not_ ," Tenten hisses, only barely managing to keep herself from screaming in her friend's face — the tedium of having to correct peoples' misconceptions about her relationship with Neji was starting to becoming borderline _frustrating_. "And he's not my man! We're just _friends_ , that's it. I swear."

"Doesn't mean you don't wish you were more than that."

Leveling Temari with a glower that would put the older woman's youngest brother to shame, Tenten begins clearing up the remnants of her meal; there isn't much time left before they both have to be back on campus for the remaining classes of the afternoon. "Is there a reason you wanted to get lunch? Beyond probing into my private life, I mean."

With a snicker, Temari mimics her actions and pushes herself away from the table. "I bet that's not the _only_ private thing you want probed. And I bet I know _who_ you want to do _it_ , too. And with _what_."

Tenten can't help but gape at Temari, then. "I don't even know how to respond to that," she says simply as she picks up her tray. "I don't think I even _want_ to respond to that."

Temari shrugs noncommittally. "I just think you should be more grateful that I haven't said anything to Ino about this whole thing." She follows Tenten to the trash bin, disposes of her garbage after and places her own tray on top of it. "I mean, you looked _hot_ that night — if I didn't know any better, I'd say Hyuuga couldn't keep his eyes off you the whole time you guys were there." She pauses, looks at Tenten pensively. "Or his hands, for that matter."

"But you don't know any better, because you were otherwise distracted." Tenten looks at Temari pointedly, then, slightly pleased at the flush dusting her friend's cheeks. "So when are you going to tell Ino that you've basically been doing a guy who is for all intents and purposes basically her _brother_ for the better part of two years, anyway?"

"It's been three years, actually," Temari informs her as they exit the cafe and make their way toward their respective cars, and her shoulders seem to sag with the weight of it all. "But, seriously? We're not evening _dating_ — no, don't give me that look, because we are _not_ , not really, we just have sex a lot and sometimes go out for dinner — but now he wants me to come along with him for some family thing that he _knows_ Ino is going to be at because they're family friends and whatever, and…"

Tenten feels guilty for bring it up, but at least the conversation isn't focused on her anymore, and Temari's voice is a welcome distraction that keeps her from wondering if Neji really _had_ been watching her that entire night.

**—**

In the weeks that had followed after that first home football game, Tenten has found herself over at Neji's apartment, and he at hers, with rapidly growing frequency. There was the aforementioned night after that first football game, for one, when Tenten had unceremoniously more-or-less passed out drunk on Neji's couch (after borrowing another shirt and a pair of shorts from him, which she'd made a point to not return because they were just _that_ comfortable), and then the following weekend, when a Saturday night of Mario Kart and hard cider after a day at the gym had devolved into the two of them falling asleep together on the couch, and the most recent occasion of the Hyuuga Enterprises corporate party. There's also the regular school weeknights, where eating dinner and outlining lesson plans and grading assignments together happens more often than not, only ending with them finally retiring to their own apartments to sleep, but Tenten doesn't really think much of it until Neji stops by her classroom one day during her free period on his way back from making copies the day after Tenten's lunch with Temari.

"I'm going to the store this evening," he tells her, leaning easily against the doorframe, "and since I know how terrible you are at remembering to purchase groceries, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me."

Tenten ponders the contents of her kitchen for a moment before she nods. "I'm running low on protein powder and coffee," she says, making a face. "I need to stock up."

Neji scowls at her from the doorway. "For a biology teacher, you seem to have a very poor idea of the body's nutritional demands."

She sticks her tongue out at him. "Hey! I do eat my veggies, I'll have you know."

"Yes, but apparently only when I make them for you."

The glower she sends him, then, is impressive, she thinks. "I'm pretty sure you've eaten vegetables at my place — "

And he has the nerve to _smirk_ at her, then. Smug bastard. "Side-dishes for takeout and pizza toppings and salads do not count."

Tenten bristles at that. "I did manage to feed myself properly before you moved next door, you know."

"I don't doubt it," Neji replies mildly, "but I do wonder how well you managed to do so."

"Fine, then," she snaps. "I'll prove it to you: dinner, Friday night, seven o'clock, my place. No takeout, no pre-made items."

He pushes himself away from the doorframe. "Perfect," he says. "It's a date — I'll pick you up at six tonight."

At that, she blinks at him, with brows furrowed and lips pursed. "Tonight?" she asks. "What's tonight?"

"Groceries, of course. You said it yourself — you need to stock up." With that, Neji turns from her and walks back to his own classroom.

Tenten watches him go for a moment longer before turning back to the pile of biome quizzes she's been grading before realization washes over her, as if she'd just stepped into an ice-cold shower.

Date. A _date_. _Neji_ had called it a _date_.

And Tenten quickly realizes she doesn't know what to do.

(So when Friday rolls around, and she ends up making enchiladas so delicious and packed with such nutritious value for dinner that even _Neji_ admits that he was wrong, Tenten decides that she doesn't have the time or patience to deal with the "date" part of everything anymore and promptly drinks three-quarters of a bottle of sangria on her own the moment dinner's done — she also spends a majority of the night heaving the contents of her stomach into the toilet, and Neji might have stayed with her to make sure she didn't choke on her own vomit in the middle of the night, but the matter is never brought up again and Tenten is all the more glad for it. She thinks.)

 


	3. Everyone Hail to the Pumpkin Song

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**
> 
> **Chapter 3: Everyone Hail to the Pumpkin Song**
> 
> _That moment when you realize your next-door-neighbor is actually really attractive, and all the ones filled with awkward sexual tension that follow._
> 
> Another section that wasn’t in the original version of this chapter, as well as a couple of other things to help further explain things that might have been somewhat unclear at first — also, the stuff going down in the part with Naruto’s birthday party is actually inspired by something that’s happened to me far too many times than I care to admit, and, man, was it awkward. Also, I figured out a way to introduce Lee and Karin into the story earlier, the way I’d originally planned, so that’s something, too.
> 
> 01112016 | 23012017 | 5039 | [AO3](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F8373688%2Fchapters%2F19343536&t=ZDE0NzNhYmNmNTFmZDQ2MDAyYWNlOGU5ZDk1MTFmYWRiNTRiZTJlYyxLM0UycjQ2dg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230406445%2Fchapter-3-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [FFN](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanfiction.net%2Fs%2F12204170%2F3%2FThe-Secret-Life-of-Teachers&t=NDQzYzE1Mzc3OGZmNjUyZTdhZWYwZTU3N2RmMTJmYjgzMmUwZjNjNSxLM0UycjQ2dg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230406445%2Fchapter-3-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [tumblr](https://shitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com/post/156230406445/chapter-3-the-secret-life-of-teachers)

**—**

On the first of October, Tenten wakes up promptly at nine in the morning, brushes her teeth, makes herself a cup of coffee, drinks it, takes a shower, makes herself another cup of coffee while making breakfast (an omelette stuffed with tomatoes and spinach and feta cheese that in her opinion is more than fit for a king, and also bacon), and eats it, all within the span of fifty-six minutes. Four minutes later, at precisely ten o'clock, she pulls out the large box of Halloween decorations tucked away in her hallway closet, unpacks it, and begins the annual process of decorating her apartment for what is easily her favorite holiday of the year while the soundtrack of _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ plays in the background.

Needless to say, Tenten quite loves Halloween, and everything that it entails.

She's in the midst of stringing pumpkin-shaped lights around the main living area when Neji stops by nearly two hours later (he'd gone to meet his cousins and uncle for brunch) and observes her handiwork from the door. "You do realize that Halloween is at the _end_ of the month, yes?" he asks her evenly.

Tenten sticks her tongue out at him. "You do realize that I actually _don't_ care about that, yes? It's October — _every single day_ is Halloween when it's October."

To his credit, Neji doesn't groan at her juvenile response. He does rolls his eyes, though, and she distinctly hears him mutter something under his breath but how he's hardly surprised that she's apparently one of " _those_ people", before he takes the liberty of properly entering her apartment and setting something in a large brown paper bag on the kitchen counter. "I brought you something from brunch, by the way. Hanabi thought you might like it, so she made me order it for you."

"Tell her I said thanks — what is it, anyway?" Tenten calls over her shoulder. She's standing on the back of the couch, her body half-twisted in an attempt to precariously balance her weight between the wall and the foot she's placed on the armrest for support while attempting to string the lights on a particularly difficult to reach corner of the room; one knee digs into the wall as an awkward support, and she's almost certain that she can feel a series of knots twisting into the longissimus muscles along her vertebral column, courtesy of the unnatural positioning of her torso and limbs.

"According to the menu, it's apparently strawberry mascarpone stuffed french toast," Neji tells her, "but to me, it just looks like a mess of strawberry jam someone slathered on top of bread as messily as they could with the assistance of a toddler immersed in their latest finger-painting creation." He's left the kitchen and is now standing beside the couch and looks up at her with pointed interest and a smirk. "Speaking of assistance, you look like you might be in need of some yourself."

Pausing long enough to scowl at him, Tenten turns back to her task of stringing the lights with a huff of annoyance. "Just because I'm not as tall as you doesn't mean I can't do this on my own, you know."

"But it _would_ easier if I helped," he points out, and when she doesn't say anything to the contrary — they both know she's far too proud to admit that he's right — Neji climbs up beside her onto the armrest of the couch. He braces himself against the wall with one forearm as he uses his other hand to take the string of lights from her (their fingers brush for the briefest of moments; she tells herself that the shock it sends bolting across the synapses of her nervous system is nothing more than static discharge from the lights) and Tenten is surprised to soon find herself wedged awkwardly between his body and the wall as he adjusts the string of orange pumpkins for her.

He smells very nice, she realizes with a start. It's the same cologne he always wears, but Tenten's never really taken notice of the blend of citrus and pine that always seems to surround him until now, when the sudden lack of free space makes the scent all the more obvious. With her arms pinned to her chest by the weight of Neji's body above her, she can somewhat feel the outline of the muscles of his torso (her elbows are pointing approximately to the origin of his external abdominal obliques, near the subtle flair of the iliac crests of his hip bone, and as much as she teases him about the superiority of her own transverse abdominal muscles, _his_ are certainly nothing to laugh at, either, if the tautness and solidity she feels against her forearms is any indication). Sure, she's seen him in various states of undress multiple times before, but for the first time since the beginning of their friendship, Tenten becomes all-too-aware of how unabashedly _male_ Neji is.

 _Wow_ , she finds herself thinking when he shifts his leg to better distribute his weight across the limited space available up on the armrest, and the movement causes his pelvis to push into the side of her own hip. _Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place._

Of course, the subject of the apparent _hardness_ of _things_ does nothing but remind Tenten of her current level of hyperawareness concerning everything related to _Neji_ and his _body_ , and so she decides to pointedly ignore the thrum of anticipation that rushes through her veins until a time it can be properly analyzed.

So, ideally, at some point when they're not in such close proximity to one another.

Time seems to pass slowly before Neji is finally pleased with the position and stability of the lights and pushes himself away from the wall, and Tenten watches as he climbs off the couch and back onto the floor.

"I could have done that myself," she mutters when he looks up at her smugly, and he merely quirks one eyebrow at her in amusement.

"You're welcome," he responds, but offers her a hand all the same to help her down from the back of the couch.

Neji's palm is warm against her fingers when Tenten takes his hand — she's not entirely sure why she does, since she's more than capable of doing this on her own — and she is somewhat taken aback with the gentleness he shows when he helps her off the couch. So, naturally, she replies, "I'm more than capable of getting down myself, you know."

"The same way you could get the lights up on your own?"

She glares at him, remembers that she's still holding his hand and pulls away from his grasp as casually as she can manage. "I had most of it done by the time you got here, you know. And they were the last of the decorations I had to put up."

Once again, Neji raises a single dark eyebrow as he looks around the room to observe her handiwork. "Very impressive," he says mildly.

"You don't sound particularly impressed," Tenten observes. "What, do you not like Halloween or something?"

He shakes his head, looks around the room once more. "I enjoy Halloween just fine on its own — I'm not that much a fan of pumpkins, that's all." He pulls a face, then, that's the closest she's ever seen him come to making an expression of abject disgust. "It's a visceral reaction: pumpkins are my least favorite food."

At that, Tenten can't help but let her eyes widen in shock. "Really?" she asks, glancing around the room. With the exception of the lights and a battery-powered jack-o-lantern she's put in the window, a majority of her Halloween decorations feature bats and monsters and anatomically-incorrect skeletons. "Good thing I don't have many pumpkins up, then."

"For that, I thank you," Neji tells her, then, complete with a minimal flourishing of hands and a slight bow at the waist. "An excess of pumpkins is something we can certainly do without."

Tenten doesn't know why there's heat suddenly blossoming on her cheeks, creeping up her neck in response to the action, so she turns away from him and makes her way to the kitchen. "Why don't you like pumpkins, anyway?" she asks as offhandedly as she's able, praying that he doesn't see the tell-tale redness of the flush spreading across her skin.

The paper bag Neji had left on the counter is a good distraction, she decides, and reaches into it to pull out the large styrofoam box resting at the bottom. It's still warm and smells absolutely _delicious_ , and her mouth begins to water almost immediately in response.

He shrugs, follows her into the kitchen and leans one shoulder against the wall. "A bad experience with them when I was in seven," he explains. "Hanabi was still a baby, then, and just starting to eat solid foods."

She looks at him out of the corner of her eye, then, with a mixture of fascination and horror. "She didn't throw up all over you, did she?"

"Immediately after eating nearly an entire jar of pureed pumpkin baby food," Neji confirms, his expression solemn and slightly green.

Tenten turns back to the box of strawberry french toast and decides, then, that maybe this year she'll wait for an opportunity that Neji isn't in the apartment building to make her annual batch of pumpkin bread — there are plenty of other Saturdays left in the month, after all.

Her decision concerning the state of her still-racing pulse, however, is another matter entirely.

**—**

"Since when have you two been together?"

The question takes Tenten utterly by surprise, and she thinks it's an absolute _miracle_ that she doesn't end up spitting her drink in Karin's face as a result. It does succeed in making her choke on her vodka lemonade, however, and once the coughing's subsided and she's regained control of her voice, Tenten manages to gasp, as incredulously as she's able, " _Excuse me?_ "

From across the table, her old roommate grins at her slyly. "You heard me, Tennie," Karin says. "You and Mr. Tall, Dark, and Emotionally Constipated over there — how long has that been a thing?" She looks pointedly at the bar, and Tenten doesn't need to follow her gaze to know what she means.

"We're _friends_ , Karin," Tenten hisses. "That's it."

Karin doesn't seem to be remotely convinced, and expresses the sentiment with a delicate snort. "Of _course_ that's all you guys are." She gives Tenten a no-nonsense look over her glasses. "Because only _friends_ look at one another like _that_. _Totally_ _platonic_. My mistake."

"What do you mean?" Tenten asks, almost afraid of what she might hear next.

"Putting it mildly? Like you guys want to eat each other, of course."

Tenten's only response is to growl and down the rest of her drink in frustration.

It's Naruto's birthday, and in honor of the event, he'd invited a large group of people to his favorite club to celebrate. Some of them Tenten already knows: Sakura and Ino are with Hanabi over by the dance floor, trying to get an extremely reluctant Temari to join them, while Shino and Chouji and Sai and Shikamaru are sitting in a booth with Kiba, whom Tenten's met once or twice before and who's apparently known Shino and Hinata from when they were kids. Hinata herself is with Naruto, though the pair had disappeared after the last round of shots (no one really wants to think about what they could possibly doing at the moment), and Karin — whose familial relation to Naruto she still actually doesn't know beyond it being "distant" — is obviously sitting with Tenten. That leaves Neji and Sasuke, who are standing awkwardly near the bar with drinks in hand as Lee — who is undisputedly Tenten's oldest friend — talks animatedly at them about something they seemed to have little interest in.

Well, Sasuke doesn't seem particularly interested in it, anyway. Neji seems tired, and somewhat exasperated, but at least _he_ has been responding to Lee's excited chatter with the occasional nod and a few words here and there. Tenten finds herself inexplicably happy with the knowledge that her oldest friend is getting along so well with one of her most recent ones (who is also quickly becoming one of her closest friends). She figures they're probably talking about martial arts or something similar, and bonding over that.

"Oh, Tennie." Karin's voice catches her attention, and her gaze drifts back to her former roommate from where she's been watching — oh _no_ , had she really been staring so blatantly at _Neji_? "You have it _bad_."

Tenten sniffs primly and takes another sip of her drink. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I think you do," Karin counters. The grin on her face is positively _evil_ , now, and Tenten hates how well her old roommate can still read her, even though this is the first time they've seen each other in nearly a year. "They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, you know."

"That's hardly applicable, Karin. He's my neighbor _and_ my coworker — I see him every day."

Is it possible for an already evil grin to become even _more_ evil? In Karin's case, Tenten thinks the answer is _yes_. "You guys were basically joined at the hip from the moment you got here until Lee finally dragged him off and you and I started catching up," she begins matter-of-factly, "and the two of you have been sneaking peeks at each other ever since."

Heat rushes across her skin, and Tenten knows it has nothing to do with the alcohol. "I've done no such thing!"

Karin snorts again and steps away from the table. "Yeah, yeah," she says dismissively, "whatever lets you sleep at night. Now come on — I need to get another drink."

Wordlessly, Tenten grabs her glass and follows Karin to the bar, and does her best to ignore the way her heart pounds in her chest when Neji notices them and waves them over. She also ignores the way Karin deliberately maneuvers her to stand beside him once they reach the bar, and it takes every ounce of willpower Tenten possesses to not give in to her natural reaction of leaning against him for warmth, despite the gooseflesh rising on her arms.

Fortunately for her (or unfortunately, as the case may be — Tenten does not miss the smug look Karin gives her, then) Neji solves her dilemma when he wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her toward him, the way he always does when he knows she's cold, and her heart almost leaps out of her throat when he leans down and asks, "Are you alright? Your face is red."

Neji's voice is low and soft in her ear, and Tenten decides that it is altogether far too much for her already-distracted mind to contemplate. "Yeah, I'm fine," she tells him. "Just need some water."

He nods in understanding. "Wait here," he says. "I'll get it for you."

Tenten shivers when he steps away — _It's because you're cold_ , she tells herself — and pretends not to watch as he makes his way to the first available bartender with Lee and Sasuke in tow.

Karin sidles up next to her a heartbeat later and settles her arm around Tenten the way Neji had just moments earlier; it's comforting, but she's a little disappointed that it doesn't feel quite as nice as when he'd done it.

"Oh, Tennie," Karin croons again, and this time her voice has lost its smug edge, to be replaced by something far softer and more sympathetic. "You guys have it so, so bad."

**—**

Over the course of the next few weeks, Tenten finds herself becoming increasingly on-edge as she finds herself becoming ever more aware of exactly just how attractive her neighbor is, and she finds herself looking at her friend differently with every passing day.

She's not entirely sure what to do about it.

Which is to say, in turn, that while Tenten's always _known_ that Neji is a fairly good-looking man (she had first noticed him when she happened to see him leaving his apartment shirtless to go for a run one morning soon after he'd moved into the building, after all, and she would be lying if she said she hadn't stopped to watch him for just a _little_ while just to appreciate the view) it had never actually occurred to her that she might find herself maybe-attracted to her neighbor-slash-coworker-turned-friend, and just thinking about it is ultimately entirely too confusing for her to deal with.

Patience is not a virtue Tenten is blessed with, after all.

**—**

Tenten's awareness of her growing attraction to Neji comes to a head approximately two weeks before Halloween. Ino has invited them to her annual Halloween party, and while Neji had said he'd go with her, it had taken weeks of wheedling and arguing for Tenten to convince him to dress up for the occasion.

("I'll do whatever you want if you dress up," she'd said on their way to the parking lot after school one afternoon. "One favor, no conditions or exceptions. Anything goes."

He'd looked at her out of the corner of his eye, then, with a smirk and an expression of pointed interest. "If that's the case, I might consider it.")

Ultimately, Neji had decided on a ready-made vampire costume consisting of a long black cape and fake fangs they'd found at a local Halloween store a few days before the party — hardly original, perhaps, but at least it was something. He shows up at her door in a plain white dress shirt and black slacks, cape draped over one arm and fangs in his breast pocket a half-hour before they're set to leave, and the first thing he says to her when she opens the door takes her completely by surprise.

"I need you to give me a bite mark."

"Say what?" she replies, staring up at him and stepping aside to let him into her apartment.

"Vampires usually have bite marks, themselves," he explains. "Would you be able to give me one? For the costume."

Tenten blinks up at him. "What, with makeup or something?"

"Unless you're secretly a vampire and willing to bite me for such purposes, I would assume so." Neji blinks at her, then, as if seeing her for the first time, and looks her over from top to toe. "I thought you said you were going to be Beetlejuice."

She's grateful for the change in topic, then, if only because it serves as a way to distract Tenten from thoughts involving her biting Neji in a variety of different situations that have made breathing properly suddenly very difficult, though it does nothing to explain how the way he's looking at her then is doing strange things to her equilibrium.

"That was the original plan," she replies as dismissively as she's able. "And then Ino found out, and said I wasn't allowed to come to the party if I didn't have a sexy costume, so, " and here she gestures lamely at herself, "a sexy costume it is. Not my usual style, but, hey. It's Halloween, and there's going to be free food and alcohol, so I figured I might as well."

Ino had lent her a tight, sleeveless black crop top, along with a pair of black cat ears and a matching felt tail, and in the depths of her closet, Tenten had found a pair of black wedged heels she'd almost forgotten she even owned, finishing off her admittedly half-hearted attempt at a sexy black cat costume with her favorite pair of dark wash denim shorts.

Neji's eyes rove over her once again. "At least you can show off the results of your hours at the gym this way."

"I suppose that's true," Tenten replies, and the air between them is suddenly a mess of awkward tension. She clears her throat. "So, uh. Bite mark, right? Let me get my eyeliner."

**—**

The Halloween party is already well underway by the time Neji and Tenten arrive and have put their things in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs (Neji had driven them to the party after Ino had offered to let them stay the night). Ino herself is already a tipsy mess in a form-fitting devil costume when they find her lounging across Sai's lap on the couch, but she springs up almost immediately when she sees them, whistling lowly when she takes in Tenten's appearance.

"You, my friends," she slurs, looking from Tenten to Neji and back again, "look _hot_. Good work. I approve."

Tenten frowns at her. "You picked out my costume," she says flatly. "You said I couldn't come if I didn't meet your standards of sexy."

Ino giggles at that. "Because I want you to get _laid_ ," she explains, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. " _Both_ of you!"

At that, Tenten can't help but roll her eyes. "Don't worry about us," she says as she turns away, though her lips are curved in a smile all the same. "Take care of yourself first and be careful, okay?"

"I'll keep an eye on her," Sai tells them politely from the couch as he reaches forward, letting his fingers close around Ino's wrist to guide his maybe-girlfriend gently back to the couch. "Have fun, and let me know if you need anything."

With a nod and a word of thanks, they take their leave of the pair, and Tenten (having been to Ino's house multiple times before) leads Neji to the kitchen for a drink. There's a variety of different beverages on the large island-style counter, and she cocks her head at him curiously.

"Pick your poison," she tells him, and he looks at her in amusement as he ponders the choices laid before them.

"Rum and Coke," Neji finally decides after a few moments of eyeing the selection. "And you?"

Tenten is already reaching for a pair of plastic red solo cups with one hand and the bottle of Bacardi rum with the other. "Ninja Turtle," she replies, gesturing to the fifth of UV Blue and the bottle of Mountain Dew beside it with a vague jab of her elbow. "It's a Halloween tradition."

Neji nods and reaches past her shoulder for the two-liter of Coke, the material of his shirt sliding along her bare skin; she fights back the urge to shiver. "I see." His fingers close around the neck of the bottle, and he brings back his arm easily, sets the bottle in her waiting hand. "And you're not worried about the damage that combination of alcohol and sugar might do to your liver and pancreas?"

"It's _Halloween_ , Hyuuga," she scoffs as she hands Neji his drink. "Live a little — things like properly functioning livers and pancreases and all other visceral components don't matter tonight."

He smirks and shifts his weight to one hip, watches her as she pours the UV Blue into her own cup (she fills it a little over half-full and absolutely does not feel thoroughly exposed under the scrutiny of his gaze) before adding the Mountain Dew so that the drink turns a bright, violent shade of lime green. "I thought Halloween was for bad decisions and general debauchery."

"The liver thing falls under the general category of bad decisions."

Neji raises an eyebrow at that. "That is a terrible thing for a biology teacher to say," he responds, before taking a sip of his drink, and Tenten can't help but look at him in amusement when he pulls a face at the taste. "How strong did you make this? I asked for a rum _and_ Coke, not a rum _with a hint of_ Coke."

"Oh, just live a little, for once," she repeats with a wide, cat-like grin, pushing herself away from the counter and sauntering towards basement door. Someone (probably Naruto) is blasting an interesting remix of "What Does the Fox Say" downstairs, the bass shaking the linoleum tiles of the kitchen floor beneath their feet, and Tenten finds that she is suddenly in the mood to dance. "This is Halloween."

He shakes his head in half-hearted exasperation, but in the end, Neji follows her down the stairs all the same, and Tenten finds herself wondering if she can convince him to dance with her at some point over the course of the night — only because she thinks it would be hilarious to see someone as uptight as him trying to dance, of course, and definitely not because she's almost half-interested to be pressed up against him again.

Definitely.

Though she really wouldn't be that opposed to it, either, when she thinks about it, especially if the pressing was of the more intimate variety, and he was looking at her the way he had earlier that evening, and —

Oh. Oh, _no_.

Karin was right — she _did_ have it bad.

She always hated it when Karin was right.

**—**

Through the intervention of some strange twist of fate, a few more drinks, and maybe a pinch of Halloween magic, Tenten somehow manages to convince Neji to dance with her an hour or two later.

At first, he's not very good. For all the natural grace he possess when walking or running or even just sitting around, it seems to leave him entirely when he's forced to match it to music. Being drunk probably doesn't help much at all, either, but she is, too, so she really shouldn't judge him (especially since they're surrounded by people they both know — Hinata and Naruto and Hanabi are here, for one, and so are Shikamaru and Temari and Shino and a few of the other teachers from school, though Karin and Lee are, fortunately, not present) and decides instead to take his hands and settle them on her hips in an attempt to show him how to properly move with the music.

They're face-to-face when they first start, with her hands on his shoulders and his on her waist. It's fun, and easy, so _natural_ , because it's _Neji_ , and Tenten doesn't notice that they've been pulling one another closer with every passing song until she's pressed so tightly to his chest that it's starting to get uncomfortable, and unconsciously turns herself around in his arms until her back is against his front.

Neji's hands are still on her hips as he follows her lead, and she's enjoying herself so much, losing herself in the comfort of his solid warmth against her and the rush of adrenaline she tries to tell herself has nothing to do with her dance partner, that Tenten doesn't really think anything of their new position until she feels one of his arms wrap around her waist, his fingers grasping the belt loops of her denim shorts, and he leans forward, allowing his chin to rest on her shoulder as his breath fans across her neck.

It's a subtle thing, really, but the slight change offers a new intimacy she's never experienced with him before, and it occurs to Tenten, then, that she is currently dancing dirty with Neji.

She can't help but twist herself back around to look at him, curious to know what he feels about the whole thing, and what she sees, then, leaves her mouth dry and her lungs breathless, makes her pulse race in a way it never has before.

There's a faint flush along Neji's cheeks, and from this close she's able to make out the dark shadow of stubble across the pale skin of his jaw. His eyes are hooded, and Tenten wonders if she's imagining what she sees in their pale depths. Her attention flickers to his lips, briefly, before she meets his gaze again a heartbeat later, and in that instant, the growing cord of tension between them _snaps_.

Neji's lips are against hers less than a moment later — or had Tenten been the one to kiss _him_? — and the arm around her waist tightens, pulling her flush against him. His other hand ghosts across her intercostals, her clavicles and neck, before coming to rest beneath her ear with his thumb brushing against the crest of her zygomatic arch and his fingers curving to cradle the back of her head and neck, approximately where the first (atlas) and second (axis) of her cervical vertebrae articulate with the base of her skull.

It does not take long for her to lose herself in the sensation of it all, and she wraps her arms around his neck, raises herself onto her toes to kiss him even deeper (because he still towers over her by a few inches, despite the height offered by her wedged heels), to press herself to him even further. All she knows is Neji, Neji, _Neji_ , and it is only then that Tenten realizes that she has wanted exactly this for a very long time.

She's startled out of her reverie when someone yells at the them to get a room, and Neji pulls away from her almost instantaneously. Tenten's about to ask if she's done something wrong when she sees the look in his eyes, and this time she makes no effort to suppress the shiver that runs down her spine. Somewhere in the air between them an agreement is made, a tacit understanding reached, and then they're running up the basement steps, and to the second floor of Ino's house.

When they finally reach the bedroom they'd been given for the night, she has barely enough time to consciously give thanks to the universe that he has the presence of mind to lock the door behind them before he pins her against it with his own body and presses himself against her.

Tenten moans, and he does it again.

"I'll be collecting that favor, now," Neji murmurs against her jaw, and it is the last thing either of them say for a very long time.


	4. Texts from Whatever

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**
> 
> **Chapter 4: Texts from Whatever**
> 
> _The one with all the text messages._
> 
> Fixing typos and such, as well as formatting and adding sections — you guys know the drill. Also changed the chapter name (an obvious and half-assed reference to TFLN) and summary to fit with the revised version of it, too. 
> 
> By the way: purposefully trying to come up with drunk text messages is  _really_ hard, as is figuring out a distinctive texting style and nickname for each character featured (which is why some of them seem so out-of-character and repetitive, and also just outright  _terrible_ ) and I apologize in advance if you’re reading the FFN version of this chapter because FFN is really terrible with formatting things and character usage (and if you’d like to see what this chapter is  _supposed_ to look like, then I highly recommend reading it on tumblr or AO3 instead). 
> 
> Also, safe sex is super important, and promoting it as much as I can in any of my fanworks where sex happens is something that is really important to me, so. Yeah. There’s that, too.
> 
> 02112016 | 23012017 | 5069 | [AO3](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F8373688%2Fchapters%2F19378000&t=MTg2MTZiNmQzNTBmNTZlYWJkNjQ4NGQ5ZDU2NmFhNGZiMTUxMTViOCxaQjg3cVlhRA%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230479400%2Fchapter-4-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [FFN](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanfiction.net%2Fs%2F12204170%2F4%2FThe-Secret-Life-of-Teachers&t=ZThhZTg5ZGVjNGVlMjkyNTY0MzI1YjA1Y2Q0NzJmZTIzMjM5MTEyZSxaQjg3cVlhRA%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230479400%2Fchapter-4-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [tumblr](https://shitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com/post/156230479400/chapter-4-the-secret-life-of-teachers)

**—**

It is a well-known fact of the universe that the text messages sent by inebriated friends during any sort of function taking place the night before are among the most entertaining and enlightening things to wake up to. As she scrolls through her inbox the morning after the Halloween party, Tenten decides that the ones she's received from Ino are a prime example of this.

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie**  
**I see you a nd neji "just friends" my asssssssss**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_TEN WHT HAPENIN I SW TONGUE_**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_SEX SEX SE X_**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_PLS USSE PROTECION TO DIS BB FEAR HOUSE_**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_*FREE_**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_Hello Tenten, this is Sai — Ino wanted me to remind you to use a condom, and also says she hopes you have fun tonight._**

Unfortunately, however, she is currently unable to fully appreciate the unintelligible glory that is the combination of Ino's drunken ramblings and the autocorrect function, the reason for which begins to stir just behind her on the bed as she finishes reading the last of her unread messages.

Dread settles into her belly, and Tenten takes a deep breath, shifts onto her side, and comes face-to-face with a distractingly naked Hyuuga Neji.

Her phone vibrates, then, and when she glances at it, Tenten blanches upon taking note of the sender's name at the top of the screen.

 **To: Tennie**  
**From: Dirty Redhead  
_i heard what happened last night._**

 **To: Tennie**  
**From: Dirty Redhead  
_> 8D_**

**—**

Although she's not entirely sure if it technically counts as one, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever in Tenten's mind that the drive back to the apartment half an hour later is the most awkward walk-of-shame-like situation she has ever found herself in. She couldn't find it in herself to meet his eye once after receiving Karin's text message, and hadn't been able to say anything to him longer than one syllable after Ino had pressed a small sandwich bag of telltale white pills into her hand — "Just in case," the blonde had muttered with a knowing, sympathetic look, despite the discomfort of her obvious hangover — as they'd left, and when Neji asks if she'd like to pick up breakfast on their way home, all she does is nod mutely and continue trying to stare holes into the dashboard of his car.

They're waiting for their turn in the drive-through line at the local Tim Hortons to order breakfast when Neji leans against the driver's side door and looks pointedly at Tenten.

If she'd thought the situation to be awkward before, what he says next makes it something else entirely.

"I suppose it goes without saying, now," he begins easily, as though he were talking about the weather, "but I am attracted to you, I consider you to be my significant other, and I would very much like to take you out to dinner sometime."

Tenten looks at him, unsure how to react. This is the first they've spoken of the events of the previous night, and though she's glad that he's the one to broach the topic, she hadn't expected him to do so quite like _that_. So she smiles at him as well as she's able (although she's sure it looks more like a pained sort of grimace instead) and replies intelligently, "Uh-huh."

Wonderful — she's managed an entire _two_ syllables, this time. Her only consolation is that it's at least some form of progress, even if it leaves quite a bit to be desired.

He raises an eyebrow at that. "I understand if you'd rather not discuss this," he tells her, "and I also understand if you would prefer to act as if nothing happened and move past it, but I also want you to know that I am entirely serious about wanting to take you out for dinner." The car in front of them moves up, and Neji inches his sleek and eco-friendly black hybrid car forward, rolls down the window so they can order. "What did you want for breakfast? Aside from coffee, of course — that one was a given."

She frowns at him, but rattles off her order all the same, which he repeats to the employee working the drive-through line (a blueberry muffin and a toasted everything bagel with the garden vegetable cream cheese spread, though she doesn't mention the coffee, because he'd been right — that _had_ been a given, and she's pleasantly surprised that he knows her so well when he asks for two creams and one sugar to be added to it) before reaching into her purse for her wallet while he makes his own. She doesn't know how he can remain so nonchalant about everything, especially when she's sure he can hear the pounding of her heart against her ribs, but Tenten has never been one to give in to vulnerability or weakness, emotional or otherwise, and she certainly isn't about to start now.

And she's definitely never been the sort to turn down the offer of a free meal, either.

Neji catches the movement out of the corner of her eye and frowns at her in turn when they pull up to the window to pay. "You don't have to, you know. Coming here was my idea."

But Tenten shakes her head and presses a crumpled-up twenty-dollar bill — the only change she has on her at the moment — into his hand, in what she desperately hopes is a way that offers no room for argument. "You said you wanted to take me out to dinner," she replies as nonchalantly as she can, despite the heat she feels spreading across her face when she finally meets his eye for the second time that day. "The least I can do is cover breakfast."

**—**

**To: Lotus**  
**From: Beastie  
_Sakura told me you and Neji finally embraced the passion of youth together! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!_**

 **To: Lotus**  
**From: Beastie  
_Neji is a strong and honorable man and I know he will be good to you!_**

 **To: Lotus**  
**From: Beastie  
_Though it appears Gai and I now have another rival for your affections…_**

 **To: Beastie**  
**From: Lotus  
_Don't you have better things to do? Like burning out your retinas by staring into a sunset?_**

 **To: Beastie**  
**From: Lotus  
_:P_**

**—**

When Ino demands a girls-only dinner date two nights after the Halloween party despite the fact that it is a Monday and they all have work the following day, Tenten knows full and well what to expect.

She's hardly surprised, therefore, when she finally arrives at the small but popular hole-in-the-wall restaurant downtown to discover that Ino, Sakura, and Temari already there and discussing something intently over bruschetta and wine, though she is a bit taken aback to see Hinata and Hanabi there, too, and just as engaged in the conversation at hand. Even though she really _shouldn't_ be at all, Tenten realizes, when she takes the empty seat beside the latter and Hanabi fixes her with a piercing stare before asking, "So, how is Neji in bed, anyway?"

Tenten just stares at the younger woman with a mix of shock and awe.

"Um, we went ahead and ordered a drink for you, by the way," Hinata interrupts softly, then, while Temari pushes the drink in question toward Tenten and pretends to not be interested in what's going on at all. "It's a pomegranate wine — I hope that's alright."

"Which brings us back to Hanabi's question," Sakura continues. She takes a sip from her own glass and looks pointedly at Ino, who leans forward expectantly and taps her fingers together, lips curved up in a knowing, devious grin.

"Details, girl. Spill 'em."

Tenten frowns. "I didn't expect you all to be so vested in my private life," she says, taking the glass of wine from Temari and bring it to her lips; it's delicious, the perfect blend of tanginess and sweetness, and she allows herself to indulge in another sip. "What's the connection between pomegranates and Neji, anyway?"

"Pomegranates are a natural aphrodisiac, apparently," Hanabi supplies matter-of-factly, and Tenten chokes.

She looks accusingly at the other occupants of the tables as she coughs, willing herself to regain her composure as quickly as possible. "You all planned this, didn't you?" Tenten manages to wheeze out eventually.

Hinata has the grace to flush deeply and look away, at that, while Sakura suddenly seems to find the plain white tablecloth fascinating. Temari isn't even fazed by the question — "No comment," she says flatly when pressed — while Ino and Hanabi share a conspiratorial glance, and Tenten is suddenly very afraid for what the rest of the meal might hold.

**—**

**To: Ten (work)**  
**From: Buggy  
_If Hyuuga ever does anything untoward to you, tell him I know how to get rid of a body so thoroughly it would be as if it never existed in the first place._**

 **To: Buggy**  
**From: Ten (work)  
_You know there's a reason the students think you're associated with the criminal underworld right?_**

 **To: Buggy**  
**From: Ten (work)  
_But thank you Buggy, you're a good friend and I really appreciate it_**

 **To: Ten (work)**  
**From: Buggy  
_Stop calling me that. And you're welcome._**

**—**

Life, to Tenten's surprise, goes on much as it had before when Monday morning arrives and she opens her apartment door to find Neji waiting for her so they can walk down to the parking lot together as they normally do. The air between them is still an awkward mess, but he seems happy enough to see her, and so she returns his small smile with one of her own before closing the door and locking it behind her.

He's quiet, though, in a way that doesn't quite fall in line with his naturally reticent demeanor. It's a bit frustrating, really, she thinks, but even so she says nothing as they enter the stairwell and begin their descent, just in case she's reading too much into the situation — which wouldn't be that ludicrous of an idea at all.

It isn't until the silence grates so terribly on her already frazzled nerves as they're climbing down the steps between the second and third floors that Tenten reaches her breaking point, where she takes a deep, steadying breath, holds it while silently counting to ten, before relaxing her diaphragm and exhaling sharply (a classic example of the importance of the types of gradients in the body at work, and a fundamental principle of anatomy and physiology).

The sound of air rushing out of her lungs so quickly catches Neji's attention — she'd hoped it would — and when he looks at her with a quizzical expression, she steels her nerves, forces herself to meet his eye, and ask as naturally as she's able, "So, what does your week look like?"

Neji blinks slowly at her, but then smiles, adjusts his grip on his bag. "My advanced placement classes have a test on Friday they're not looking forward to," he tells her, "and my regular physics students have their test the day before, so I'll be doing a lot of reviews this week." He clears his throat, then, and Tenten wonders if she's just imagining the way his smile seems to become a touch more shy. "And yourself?"

"Well, we're starting on the connective tissues this week in A&P," she begins, somewhat surprised at how easily she's still able to converse with him, "and my bio kids are working on their cell structure posters for Thursday." She purses her lips, mentally reviews her lesson plans for the week. "Still need to figure out what to do for Friday, though."

They've reached the ground floor, now, and to her pleasant surprise, Neji holds the door to the parking lot open for her. "You could always proctor my AP classes's exams for me instead."

Tenten laughs and steps outside, and something comfortable and warm settles in her belly. "I was thinking more along the lines of a movie — _Bill Nye_ , probably," she replies, and although things between them are still palpably awkward and strange, she can't help but grin up at him. "But thanks anyway."

**—**

**To: Science Freak**  
**From: Math Freak  
_So when's the wedding?_**

 **To: Math Freak**  
**From: Science Freak  
_Depends, when are you telling Ino about you and Nara?_**

 **To: Science Freak**  
**From: Math Freak  
_Cold. But fair_**

**—**

After the initial awkwardness of Monday morning, it is to Tenten's utter relief that Tuesday and Wednesday pass them by in a relatively uneventful blur. With the night of the Halloween party, along with Neji's confession at the drive-through the following morning, serving as the catalyst for a noticeable shift in their relationship, she finds herself inelegantly toeing the line between _friends_ and _something more_ with increasing frequency. At least their interactions have become comfortable enough for her to recognize the vague sense of normalcy they'd had before, she decides, despite the undeniable current of attraction now running between them, and it's something she takes consolation in as the days pass and they fall back into the regularity of their professional lives.

On Thursday morning, however, Tenten finds herself waiting anxiously outside Neji's apartment, leaning against the wall as she worries her lower lip between her teeth, doing her very best not to fidget despite the distracting sensation of tension and apprehension fluttering around in her stomach.

She _really_ hopes this goes over well.

" — Tenten? Is everything alright?"

Neji's eyes are wide surprise when he discovers her outside his door (well, as wide as they can be for someone like him to effectively convey their surprise, anyway) and it's enough to make her want to rush back to her own apartment and barricade herself inside. But what she has to tell him is important, she knows, so Tenten stands her ground, takes a deep breath and adjusts the strap of her purse — an obvious distraction, perhaps, and one she's clearly using to avoid meeting his eye, but at that moment, she doesn't particularly care.

"I just wanted to let you know," she begins, steeling herself for whatever might follow. Her voice catches in her throat, and she swallows, tries again. "So, uh. I just wanted to let you know that, well. My period started this morning, so. Um. Yeah. I'm not pregnant."

Her news is met with silence, and unsure how to interpret it, Tenten takes an idle sip from her travel mug of coffee, and decides to risk sneaking a glance at Neji, if only to see if that will help gauge his reaction any better.

It doesn't: all he's doing is staring at her with his lips slightly parted — he doesn't even seem to realize that he's still in the middle of putting on his jacket, or that his keys and one of his black leather gloves have fallen onto the ugly paisley carpet that stretches the length of the hallway.

She decides to try again. "Because we didn't use a condom."

Once again, nothing.

"I took some emergency contraception once we got back on Sunday, and now it's about four days later, and my period started a little early but at least I'm not pregnant. Which is a good thing."

And still absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Well, it's certainly unnerving, to say the least, but also a bit annoying. Weren't people supposed to be _happy_ after finding out they hadn't gotten their partner pregnant following a night of unexpected and unprotected (and, admittedly, _really good_ ) sex? Sure, they hadn't really broached the topic before (aside from the morning after the party, of course, but she doesn't really want to remember how painfully awkward _that_ conversation had been) but at that moment Tenten feels absolutely miserable and is currently experiencing some of the worst cramps she's had in her entire life, and so decides that she really doesn't care — if she has to suffer so much for the next few days due to _both_ of their poor decision-making skills (because, as the old adage goes, "it takes two to tango") it's more than fair that Neji should suffer a bit, too.

So, she kicks him, right in the tibia. Perhaps the fact that she's still a bit bitter about how nonchalant he'd been about the situation during their drive home, and how casually he'd asked her out at the drive-through, _does_ cause her booted toe to make contact with his leg with a bit more force than is necessary, but at least it gets the job done.

Neji snaps out of his reverie and swears in a very un-Neji-like way, reaching down to rub his shin ruefully. He seems to notice his keys and glove on the floor, then, and picks them up, before realizing his jacket is still awkwardly hanging off his body from one arm, and Tenten thinks she's never seen him act so frazzled before.

If she weren't so annoyed at the moment (and not on the verge of being late for work — seriously, they'd need to get going _now_ if they wanted to beat traffic) she would have thought it _cute_.

But she _is_ annoyed, all things considered, and Tenten allows Neji only a brief moment to right himself before asking expectantly, " _Well?_ "

He swallows thickly, and this time _Neji_ is the one avoiding her gaze. It's _hilarious_. "That… Well, that is certainly good to know."

Tenten knows she really shouldn't get this much sadistic pleasure from the situation, let alone make him aware of how amusing she finds it all, so she hides her grin with another sip of coffee, turning away from him with a dismissive wave to walk down to the stairwell. "Yeah, well, it doesn't _feel_ good — which is why you're going to buy condoms the first chance you get so I don't have to go through all this pain again."

Neji catches up to her as she's setting foot on the steps. "Are you implying that you would like to sleep with me again?"

 _Damn_ , but was that smooth. Tenten really wishes she knew how Neji was able to regain his composure so quickly like that, especially when his question causes her to choke on her coffee. It's a miracle she doesn't trip and fall down the stairs, and she grips the railing with her free hand for extra support.

"Wow me with dinner, first," she tells him. "And then we'll see."

**—**

**To: Blondie**  
**From: 1010  
_Just wanted to let you know that your house is still a baby-free zone — thanks for having my back <3_**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_aww darling you know i'm always here for yo_**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_besides it was about time you guys did something about all that unresolved sexual tension and thanks to you i'm now $50 richer_**

 **To: Blondie**  
**From: 1010  
_YOU GUYS BET ON US? Why am I not surprised_**

 **To: 1010**  
**From: Blondie  
_i'm a high school counselor hun, if there's a way for me to make easy money there's no way i'll pass it up_**

**—**

On Saturday, a week to the day following the Halloween party, Neji stays true to his word and takes Tenten out to dinner. The place he's chosen is a quaint Mexican restaurant he and his family have apparently frequented for years, despite the fact that he doesn't do particularly well with spicy food and the place is nearly a forty-minute drive away, and when she asks why they're going to a place that's so out-of-the-way, Neji merely looks at her from the corner of his eye.

"It will be worth it," he tells her resolutely. "You'll see when we get there."

She pouts at him, then, but takes it in stride all the same. They sit in awkward-but-companionable silence for a while, occasionally punctuated with idle chatter and the changing of the radio station, until Neji takes the appropriate exit, and five minutes later they're pulling into the parking lot beside a small building with the words _La Corona_ glaring down at them in bright red lights.

"Well?" Neji asks as they pull into an empty spot. He parks and turns off the ignition before turning to look at her expectantly. "Shall we?"

Tenten offers him a small smile. "We shall."

"Then let's go."

Fifteen minutes later, they're seated at a secluded table on the main floor of the restaurant. They've just been brought their appetizers and drinks (a bottle of Corona with a slice of lime each, as well as a half-order of nachos a piece — she had wanted hers with jalapeños, and he had not because of his embarrassingly low tolerance for spicy food, and Tenten had _not_ been willing to compromise) when she finds herself asking, "So how long have you, uh." She pauses, takes a contemplative sip of her beer, coughs and hopes he doesn't notice the blush blooming across her cheeks (but who is she kidding, he's totally noticed). "Um. Since when you have considered me to be your 'significant other', anyway?"

His reply is so matter-of-fact and immediate that Tenten swears it gives her whiplash. "Since you and I went to the corporate party together, though admittedly I didn't become all that aware of it until Naruto's birthday — your friend Lee was _very_ keen on learning exactly what sort of relationship we had." He picks up a nacho with two elegant fingers, and she stares at him, unsure how he's managed to make the action look so graceful. "Hanabi said she was keeping a tally of the numbers of times I gave anyone who seemed interested in you or gave you a double-take the stink-eye, but apparently she lost count at around forty or so."

She blinks, and resolves to apologize to Temari as soon as possible. "People were really looking at me like that?"

Neji nods. "Not that I can blame them, of course," he adds. "I'm sure I was looking at you the same way, myself."

"I didn't notice anything, though!" There is no doubt that her face is bright red, by now, and she feels stupid for bringing up the question in the first place. She decides that bringing up her discussion with Karin — or the fact that their friends were apparently _betting_ on them — probably isn't the best idea at the moment.

And Neji smirks, then, though now there is now a hint of a flush tinging the pale skin of his cheeks. "It's a good thing you didn't," he tells her, and his eyes dart to the side, to the ceiling, anywhere but her face. "Hanabi and Hinata texted me at least three times that night — _each_ — to tell me to stop staring at you so blatantly."

"Um," she replies. Tenten isn't sure which is more surprising: that Neji is apparently embarrassed as he's telling her this, or the fact that all of this had happened at all in the first place, and without her knowledge, at that.

"But," Neji adds, pausing long enough to take a bite of his nacho, chew it, and swallow before he continues (and again, she wonders how he makes it look so elegant), "I digress. Going back to your original question, I've stopped thinking about you as more than a friend for roughly a month, and if you're curious, I stopped thinking about you along strictly platonic lines since that night at Sharktooth after the first football game, which puts that at… oh, roughly two months, now, if I've done my math correctly."

Utterly taken aback (because she'd hardly been expecting _that_ ), Tenten blinks at him again. "That long?" she asks incredulously. "Seriously?"

"If it helps at all, I've been attracted to you since that first day I met you coming off the stairwell, when you told me you weren't a serial killer."

She gapes at him, then. "And you still believed me?"

"Admittedly, I was more curious about why my neighbor was surrounded by a variety scalpels and knives than the potential hazard to my wellbeing," Neji replies, reaching for another nacho. "So perhaps it was more of a combination of intrigue and attraction."

Reaching for one of her own nachos, if only to to use the action as a way to save face from her current embarrassment, Tenten frowns. "And how is that supposed to help at all?" she mutters darkly.

"Do you mean to say that you didn't spend any time at all watching me go for my morning runs?" Neji counters, and she narrows her eyes at him in turn.

"You. Wish."

He leans back in his chair, then, reaches for his bottle and brings it to his lips. "Maybe I do," he says, his mouth curved in that familiar smirk she's grown to appreciate as he looks at her over the glass edge. "Maybe I did."

It sets her nerves at ease and she releases a breath she hadn't realize she'd been holding, and Tenten decides, then, that this might be one of the best first dates she's been on in a very long time — a rewarding end to an otherwise awkward week.

(And Neji, it turns out, is quite correct, because the food here is absolutely delicious. Tenten makes a mental note to come to the restaurant again in the near future.)

**—**

**To: Future Sis**  
**From: Firecracker  
_Hey thought I'd let you know that you left a good impression on my dad_**

 **To: Firecracker**  
**From: Future Sis  
_Oh thank God :D no offense but your father is terrifying_**

 **To: Future Sis**  
**From: Firecracker  
_Lmao don't worry it's true anyway_**

 **To: Firecracker**  
**From: Future Sis  
_Haha just a little :p_**

 **To: Future Sis**  
**From: Firecracker  
_Anyway he also wants to know when you guys are getting married so you can have babies to carry on the family name_**

 **To: Future Sis**  
**From: Firecracker  
_?_**

 **To: Future Sis**  
**From: Firecracker  
_Uh hello? Tenten?_**

**—**

After that initial week following the Halloween party, Tenten decides that the most awkward thing about spending time with Neji is the fact that it's hardly awkward at all. Almost nothing has changed — it's the second quarter of the school year, now, and they still go to the gym and spend evenings together grading papers and outlining lesson plans, and he continues to proofread her papers for her graduate school classes while she bakes him cookies in return. The only difference, now, is that they go out for meals together more often, and their Friday night tradition of dinner and beer has a tendency to either devolve into lazy kisses on the couch or end with them naked and in bed.

Not that she's complaining, of course; the weather is steadily growing colder with the approach of winter, and waking up with Neji's arm around her waist and the warmth of his body against hers is really rather nice.

And so the weeks pass, and life continues. The brilliant blue of October's skies grow cool and grey and misty in November, and one Sunday morning two weeks before Thanksgiving, Tenten finds herself half-naked on Neji's couch once again.

This time, however, there is no risk of her state of undress being discovered by the sudden arrival of family members — better yet is the fact that he's there with her, laying beneath her as she straddles his waist and runs her hands up and down his sides beneath his shirt while he grips her hips and leaves open-mouthed kisses along her jaw and throat. Occasionally, his fingers skim along her bare thighs, the skin of her abdomen that becomes exposed as her shirt rides up whenever she stretches her torso just a bit, and the touch is simultaneously so delicate and so precise that she wonders if it is all entirely intentional.

Knowing Neji, it probably is.

"Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?" he asks against her skin, hissing a moment later when she drags her nails along his ribcage.

"At the moment, not really," she replies, bring her hands lower and brushing her fingers along his stomach, the dip of his navel. "Probably going Black Friday shopping with Lee — he's spending Thanksgiving with his girlfriend's family."

"In that case, would you like to spend it with mine?"

Tenten pulls away, then, far enough to observe him as carefully as she can, though admittedly it's a bit hard when Neji's thumbs are tracing idly along the flare of her hips, the bony edge of her iliac crests, and her gaze keep flickering between his pale eyes and kiss-swollen lips. "You want me to spend Thanksgiving with your family?"

"I'd like you to, if you're comfortable with it." He's looking at her curiously, now, eyes searching her expression for signs of discomfort or hesitance. "Is that alright?"

For a moment, Tenten isn't entirely sure how to respond. It isn't as if she _hasn't_ met Neji's family before — she knows Hinata and Hanabi, after all, and they've gotten quite close in the last few weeks, and she's even met his uncle a handful of times, as well, but there's a very big difference between being introduced to one's family and celebrating a major holiday with them, and she isn't sure how to handle that.

Commitment has always been a very foreign idea to her, after all.

Neji seems to sense her discomfort, then, because he's quick to assuage her doubts. "You don't have to come if you don't want to," he assures her. "I only meant — "

She cuts him off, then, pressing her lips to his and hoping he can feel the emotion she can't convey through words. "I'd love to go," she murmurs against his mouth, "and I think it's sweet of you to ask." And then she pulls back, and looks him pointedly in the eye. "But your shirt? Yeah. That needs to come off, like, _now_."

**—**

**To: Sweet Precious Baby Flower**  
**From: Tenten (Neji)  
_Your cousin just asked if I wanted to spend Thanksgiving with your family and I said yes so please tell your dumb boyfriend to propose already so the rest of your family has something to entertain them that isn't us_**

 **To: Sweet Precious Baby Flower**  
**From: Tenten (Neji)  
_I mean you guys are basically married anyway lol_**

 **To: Sweet Precious Baby Flower**  
**From: Tenten (Neji)  
_Hinata?!_**

 


	5. Turkey Day Shenanigans

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**
> 
> **Chapter 5: Turkey Day Shenanigans**
> 
> _Fact: Awkward situations and family go hand-in-hand — particularly where the Hyuuga are concerned._
> 
> Edited and revised typos, sentence structure, and such, as well as reworking some sections and adding new things entirely — such as the scene with Hiashi and Tenten, due to popular demand for the two of them interacting with one another in some capacity, and also a minor one with Naruto and Tenten, because _bias_ , and also potential foreshadowing. :p Yes.
> 
> 07112016 | 23012017 | 4037 | [AO3](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F8373688%2Fchapters%2F19484737&t=Yjk2NmM1MzhjNDg4Mzg5ODA3NWZmYTU5ZjA0ZTVlODJkZTcxNzRkZix3ZWtmMFZpVg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230548805%2Fchapter-5-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [FFN](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanfiction.net%2Fs%2F12204170%2F5%2FThe-Secret-Life-of-Teachers&t=YjhiNGEyZTY1MWQ2MmIzMDNiZDgxMjI4MGI0ODEyMjk2N2QxZDA3Nyx3ZWtmMFZpVg%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230548805%2Fchapter-5-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [tumblr](https://shitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com/post/156230548805/chapter-5-the-secret-life-of-teachers)

**—**

The day before Thanksgiving, Tenten finds herself with a problem that she hasn't had in years, if only because she has never really cared enough to consider something like this a problem at all, since for what is quite possibly the first time in her life, Tenten realizes she has nothing to wear.

Neji, of course, is absolutely no help at all.

"I rather like you wearing nothing, if you really want to know," he responds when she tells him this soon after they wake up Wednesday morning. They're currently nestled in the warmth and comfort of her bed where, coincidentally, neither of them has a stitch on whatsoever — yesterday had been the last day of the working week, with the upcoming holiday and all, and the pair of them had taken advantage of not having to go to work the moment they'd come home the previous day, and had continued to do so well into the night. "You are _very_ nice to look at."

"Pervert." She's curled against his side, tracing her fingers idly along the superficial muscles of his upper arms ( _biceps brachii_ , _triceps brachii_ , _deltoid_ , _brachialis_ , _coracobracialis_ , she recites mentally) and chest ( _pectoralis major_ , _serratus anterior_ , _intercostals_ ), the bony crest of his clavicles and the sharp protrusion of the cricoid cartilage of his trachea, when she pauses, purses her lips, and promptly punches him half-heartedly in the shoulder. "I'm being serious," she tells him, and turns away from him in mock petulance. "This is the first time I'll be celebrating a major holiday with your family, Neji. I can't just walk in wearing _whatever_."

One of his arms reaches out, winds around her waist and pulls her closer; when he speaks, his breath is warm against her bare shoulder. "Why don't you ask Hinata or Hanabi for help?"

"Because I still can't look Hinata in the eye when it comes to clothes after she saw us that day we had lunch at your uncle's house — _no_ , don't laugh, that entire debacle was _your_ fault and you _know_ it — and Hanabi would probably try to put me in something more appropriate for a night at the club than Thanksgiving dinner at your uncle's house." Tenten pauses, then, as a thought occurs to her, at the same moment Neji's fingers begin to trace gentle circles into her flank and his mouth presses hot, open-mouthed kisses against her scapula. It is very distracting, to say the least, and leaves little doubt at to what he has in mind for them next. "Though I guess it would be better than asking Ino or Temari — or even, god forbid, _Karin_."

Behind her, Neji shifts his weight, propping himself up on one forearm in order to better access the side of Tenten's throat, the juncture of her shoulder and neck. "Is that really such a bad thing?"

"Would you like me to meet your extended family wearing something that leaves absolutely _nothing_ to the imagination?" she asks hotly, though the intended effect is bit lost when he begins to alternate between kissing and biting her skin, and she thinks it is entirely unfair that he can get her so worked up like that without even really trying. "Because I can assure you that any one if them would find a way to make that happen."

"Really, now?" he breathes in her ear. Neji shifts a bit, and when something stiff and warm and all-too-familiar presses into her thigh, Tenten thinks he might not be so aloof and unaffected after all. "I might be interested in something like that — provided that I can keep you all to myself if it does, of course."

"You'll have to convince me," she whispers, pushing herself back against him. "If you do a good job, I _might_ consider it."

He responds to her challenge incredibly well.

**—**

"And how are things between you and Neji, my dear lotus?" Lee takes a sip of his latte and looks at her from the corner of his eye, one thick brow raised expectantly as they make their way through the mall that afternoon. "I trust that my newest rival continues to be a good and honorable man."

Tenten shrugs noncommittally, somehow hesitant to discuss her burgeoning maybe-relationship, much less her sex life, with her oldest and dearest friend (because, really, she and Lee might as well be siblings — talking about stuff like that could get seriously awkward, sometimes) and opts instead to take a large gulp of her extra-large macchiato. This proves to be a rather bad idea when the drink scalds her mouth and tongue and half of it goes down her trachea instead of her esophagus, and her eyes are watering when she finally manages to splutter out a wheezy response. "As well as it can be, I guess. Nothing's really changed that much between us, honestly." She pauses, clears her throat in an attempt to get rid of the remaining macchiato still clogging her windpipe. "I mean, we haven't even really talked about our relationship, or even if we _have_ one in the first place."

"What is there to discuss?" Lee asks. "It's obvious that in addition to your mutual physical attraction to one another, there is an emotional attachment as well. You train at the gym together, work well together, spend a great deal of time together — if I didn't know any better, I would say you two were already married!"

At that, she scowls. "Do you have to say it like that?"

Lee shrugs and grins happily at her. "From what you've told me, you might as well be." He takes another sip of his latte and shoves his free hand into the pocket of his jeans; the action makes his keys jangle. "I figured that's why you wanted my help — to make a good impression on his family."

At that, Tenten rolls her eyes. "Are you going to help me or not?" she asks as they near one of the larger department stores in the mall. There's a sign advertising a pre-Black Friday super-clearance sale (she hadn't even _known_ that those were an actual thing) in front of the store, and the sight of it makes her feel less guilty about spending money on something as frivolous as an outfit that she hopes will make a good impression when she knows for a fact that she has several suitable options to choose from in her closet back at the apartment.

Lee chugs down the rest of his latte (he'd ordered the smallest size, and it had cooled down quickly enough during their trek through the mall) and tosses the the cardboard cup into the nearest rubbish bin, where it lands with a satisfying _swish_. "Anything for you, my most youthful and passionate lotus," he tells her. "You don't even have to ask!"

"I'm your _only_ lotus, Lee," Tenten grumbles in reply as they enter the department store, but she's smiling all the same as she takes a sip of her now sufficiently-cooled macchiato, feeling more at ease about Thanksgiving at the Hyuugas' residence, now, than ever before.

He grins at her again, though it's not the same blinding white smile he'd given her before; it's softer, now, and almost hesitantly sympathetic. "I just want you to be happy, Tenten," he says simply, linking his arm with hers. "That's all."

Emotion clogs Tenten's throat, this time — for her oldest friend, their shared history, his well-intentioned interrogation about her budding relationship — and she swallows thickly, switches her macchiato to her other hand in order to hold on to Lee's arm with both of her own. "Thanks, Beastie," she replies, and rests her head against his shoulder. "I know."

**—**

Thanksgiving is a disaster from the moment Tenten wakes up.

For one thing, she's at Neji's place, and naked in his bed, which under normal circumstances wouldn't be _that_ much of an issue were it not for the fact that she'd forgotten her keys when she'd come over the night before, and as such is effectively locked out of her apartment. Neji's nice enough to call maintenance for her while she gets dressed (and Tenten doesn't miss the appreciative way his eyes roam over her body when she pulls on her favorite sweater of his — a large, thick thing made of soft gray wool that slides against her skin in the most _delicious_ way — when she can't find the sweatshirt she'd been wearing the previous day and is too lazy to properly search for it) but it still takes the maintenance guy almost two hours to get there to unlock her door. At least she'd been able to brush her teeth with a spare toothbrush Neji had, and have breakfast with him as well.

She's always been one to take comfort in the little things, after all.

Things hadn't gotten much better after that, however. Being locked out of her apartment for so long had left her with only an hour or so to finish rewriting a paper for her graduate school coursework before she needed to start getting ready for dinner, and the result had left her considerably less than pleased. She'd stubbed her baby toe, too, right on the corner of the coffee table, when she'd gotten up to print out the paper for Neji to edit later, and when she'd finally decided it was time to take a shower and get ready for the evening, she'd been very displeased to note that she was very nearly out of soap after accidentally getting shampoo in her eyes, and so by the time Neji comes by to pick her up so they can be on their way, Tenten is a grumpy, irate mess of nerves and pain.

She looks cute, though, so at least that's something else working in her favor for the day, and Tenten is not so proud that she won't admit that she has Lee to thank for that. It's always surprised her that someone so skilled at helping other people pick outfits for any and all occasions was so utterly terrible at dressing himself, and she tells Neji just as much when he comes to pick her up.

In hindsight, it probably isn't a coincidence at all that the sweater dress Lee had selected was green. Fortunately, however, it's no where _near_ the same vigorously verdant shade he and Gai prefer, but a deeper one that, according to Lee, brought out the ochre-gray shade of her eyes. Tenten hasn't any idea what _that_ is supposed to mean, of course, but she'd liked the color well enough to try on, and eventually purchase, the sweater dress in question, with the knowledge that it had been on the clearance rack at seventy-percent-off and fit Tenten like a glove in all the right places helping it gain just a few more points in its favor. She'd finished off the outfit with a pair of thick black legging and her favorite brown boots, along with a pair of gold earrings Lee and Gai and gotten her as a gift for her twenty-first birthday (if she was going to be rubbing elbows with the wealthy that evening, she figured she might as well look as if she'd tried to play the part) and, in a last-minute moment of daring, had opted to wear her hair down and loose for the evening, as opposed to tying it up and out of her face as she usually did.

And Neji certainly seems to appreciate it, if the way he's looking at her — with his eyes hungry and dark and his lips curved in a predatory sot of smirk — is any indication. Then again, she's probably looking at him in a very similar manner, considering that the first few buttons of his deep red collared shirt have been left undone (she's able to catch a glimpse of his clavicles, and the strong, elegant curve of his throat) and the way he's rolled the sleeves up to his elbows leaves his forearms and wrists wonderfully bare. He's gone and tied his hair back in a low ponytail at the base of his neck, while his fitted black slacks sit snug and deliciously low on his hips, and Tenten thinks it will be a miracle if they manage to get to his uncle's home with all of their clothes still intact if they're already undressing one another with their eyes.

"I still think you should have at least considered wearing nothing at all," he says, dipping his head down to brush his lips against hers affectionately before taking her hand in his and intertwining their fingers together. "Or at least asked Hanabi for ideas on what to wear. But this is nice, too — perhaps Lee should consider being your personal stylist instead of a physical therapist."

"You're never going to let that idea of Hanabi dressing me up for a night of clubbing go, are you?" Tenten asks flatly, adjusting the straps of her purse on her shoulder as they make their way down the hall and toward the stairwell.

All Neji gives her is a haughty smirk in response, and she files away the information in the back of her mind for future reference.

**—**

"Neji, we really should — "

" _Mm_ , no, it's fine."

"I already — already told Hanabi we'd be there in five minutes."

"So?"

"That was _half an hour ago_ — !"

"I said it was alright, didn't I? Come here, Tenten, just five more minutes…"

"We — alright, _fine_."

**—**

The dinner party hosted at the Hyuuga estate is already well underway by the time they walk in through the elegant front doors. Hanabi is the one to greet them in the foyer, a very full glass of red wine in one perfectly-manicured hand, and Neji frowns at her when she silently gives them a knowing look over the rim as she takes a sip.

"Not a word, Hanabi," he says in a way that would probably make a lesser being tremble, but only serves instead to make the younger woman respond by delicately covering her mouth with a theatrical gasp.

"I would never!" she retorts with delicate incredulity, but there's a glint in her eyes that makes Tenten certain that Hanabi doesn't mean it whatsoever.

Neji's frown deepens. "Yes, you would," he mutters darkly, hanging up their coats in the closet by the front doors.

Hanabi shrugs and takes another nonchalant ship of her wine. "I'm just looking out for you," she says sweetly before turning away. "By the way, if anyone asks why there's lipstick under your ear that happens to be the same color as Tenten's — which is a very nice color on you, by the way — you really can't say I didn't warn you."

**—**

After taking a moment to straighten up into some semblance of respectability in the relative privacy of the foyer (because Hanabi had been right, to their utter embarrassment: Tenten _had_ found a rather sizable smudge of lipstick beneath Neji's ear from their activities in the car after they'd parked some distance away from his uncle's house) Neji leads Tenten into the living room in order to introduce her to his family. One of his hands rests lightly at the small of her back in a vaguely possessive sort of way, and as her nerves tangle into an increasingly knotted mess, she attempts to take comfort in the warmth the point of contact sends radiating throughout her body. It helps, somewhat, and she doesn't realize she's holding her breath until Neji's voice is suddenly in her ear.

"You'll be fine, Tenten." The way he murmurs her name does all sorts of strange things to her pulse, but even so it somehow helps, if only because it's proof beyond anything else that he's there with her, and she feels herself relax a little more. "They'll love you."

The majority of the enormous room is full of younger people with Neji's pale eyes and dark hair, a few of whom have brought their own significant others or spouses to the dinner (she spies Naruto sitting with Hinata by the fireplace, and waves shyly to them from across the room). One or two of them, she notes, are accompanied by their own budding families, and she's not sure how to interpret the fluttering warmth in her stomach upon seeing one young woman — she can't be more than a few years older than Neji and herself — holding a bottle to her baby's lips. Tenten feels the collective weight of their pale stares on them from the moment their presence becomes known; it makes the back of her neck prickle uncomfortably, and she's suddenly very glad that Hiashi and the older Hyuuga relations are in another room.

A moment passes, and when nothing is said, Tenten wonders if every single one of her encounters with members of the Hyuuga family is destined to be this awkward. A heartbeat later, however, someone from the back of the room (whose voice Tenten thinks sounds suspiciously like Hanabi's) sneers, in a sing-song voice loud enough for everyone else to hear, "Neji's got a _girlfriend_!".

Just like that, the uncomfortable silence is broken, and everything around them promptly erupts into utter chaos.

Before she quite realizes what's happening, Tenten is surrounded by a number of Neji's relatives, all of them clamoring for her attention in a way that was not dissimilar to what her own students did at times. The familiarity of it is enough to alleviate her nerves a bit more, and as introductions are made and conversations begun, she finds herself growing far more relaxed and having much more fun than she'd expected — particularly when she happens to catch a glimpse of Neji out of the corner of her eye and sees the discomfited expression on his face as he's being interrogated by the mob of family members surrounding them.

"Neji, she's so pretty!"

"I can't believe you have a _girlfriend_."

"When did you have surgery to get that giant stick removed from your butt anyway, Neji?"

"How long have you two been dating?"

"So, are you guys engaged yet?"

It's at that last question that Neji seems to decide he has had enough (not that she can blame him, of course) and he leads Tenten to the bar on the far side of the room, beside the fireplace, citing _I'm too sober for this_ as a valid reason to fill up a tumbler with a generous amount of Islay scotch, neat.

"I'm guessing that's why these Hyuuga get-togethers don't happen more than a few times a year, huh?" Tenten observes with a wince as she watches Neji knock back a good portion of his glass in one large gulp.

"There's a good possibility you might have to drive home," he mutters in turn. "I'm sorry."

"Can't say I blame you," she assures him with a smile as she reaches for one of the bottles of fancy wine behind the counter. "I'll let Lee know that you won't be coming shopping with us in the morning."

**—**

Finding herself alone with Hyuuga Hiashi is the last thing Tenten expects when she gets up from her very comfortable spot on the couch to get another slice of Hinata's homemade pumpkin pie later that evening, but naturally, that is exactly what happens.

It goes just as well as one might expect.

"Mr. Hyuuga!" Somehow, Tenten manages to not stutter, which she decides is a rather remarkable feat, because at that very moment, she is absolutely _terrified_ , regardless of what anyone says about what a good impression she'd apparently left on him. "Happy Thanksgiving — I didn't get a chance to say so before, but thank you for having me over tonight."

"Tenten. I hope you're enjoying yourself." As a general rule, Hyuuga Hiashi does not go out of his way to dole out heartfelt greetings, regardless of whether or not it happens to be the holiday season. He does smile at her, however, which takes her aback. It is certainly not unkind, but Tenten still thinks it looks somewhat out of place on his naturally stern countenance. "I apologize for not being able to greet you and Neji when you first arrived — I'm afraid I was held up with my colleagues."

Dismissively, Tenten shakes her head, reaches for a can of whipped cream and removes the plastic lid. It's incredibly light, and her heart sinks a bit when she realizes that there's a very good chance she'll have to eat her pie without it. "That's alright," she tells the Hyuuga patriarch. "Hanabi told us you were busy, and we got here a bit later than we planned, anyway, so no harm done."

Hiashi raises a curious eyebrow at that. "Is that so?" he asks simply. "I hope everything is alright."

"Oh, it is, everything is fine!" Tenten presses down the nozzle of the can and watches in thinly veiled disappointment as the air hissing out of the can brings with it only the pitiful liquid dregs of whipped cream. How sad. "I got caught up in some of my graduate coursework earlier and lost track of the time, that's all."

Perhaps it _is_ a bit of a white lie, but informing Hiashi that she had been otherwise occupied with his nephew for the better part of the day (and engaging in activities that were entirely too inappropriate to discuss with present company) hardly sounds like a good idea, and Tenten waits for his response with bated breath. He seems to accept her story, however, and nods thoughtfully, serving himself his own slice of pie (this one is apple) as he does.

"That is good to hear." He doesn't look at her quite yet, opting instead to loftily survey the spread of desserts in front of them before selecting a creampuff off the tiered stand in the middle of the table and delicately adding it to his plate. "And how is your relationship with my nephew? I presume everything between you two is hearty and hale."

Oh. Well. _That_ certainly confirmed it — finding herself in extremely awkward positions with anyone with the last name _Hyuuga_ apparently _was_ her destiny. Good to know.

For a moment, Tenten's not entirely sure how to respond to the question: discussing her relationship with Lee had been weird enough, and she'd known _him_ for very nearly her entire life. Having a conversation of this sort with Hiashi could only be infinitely worse.

Really, her life was just a giant mess of one awkward moment after the other, wasn't it?

Pretending she doesn't notice Hiashi's piercing gaze analyzing her every move, Tenten shrugs vaguely and adds a few creampuffs to her own plate. "Well," she begins slowly, "we're both busy with work — I don't know if you heard, but the district is reformatting its science curricula — and I've got my courses for grad school, too, but everything's going really well, all things considered."

Commitment rears its ugly head when Hiashi nods thoughtfully once again, and she resolutely ignores that, too. "And your future plans?"

She swears she can feel her adrenal glands going into overdrive at that exact moment, sending epinephrine coursing through her bloodstream. It's all she can do to remain standing there with Hiashi at the dessert table when the _fight-or-flight_ response kicks in at full force, and she swallows thickly, throat dry and appetite suddenly gone. "I'm afraid I don't understand, sir." Her voice comes out as meek, strangled half-whisper, and she suddenly has a very good idea of what Hiashi seems to be insinuating.

Hiashi's smile is still kind when he raises an eyebrow at her, though now there's a hint of mirth tugging at the corners of his mouth that is entirely impossible to ignore. "Grandchildren, my dear," he says simply, and turns away. " _Grandchildren_."

It's a rather anticlimactic end to their conversation, and Tenten merely stares at Hiashi's retreating figure in shock.

All she wants is _one_ not-awkward encounter with a member of the Hyuuga family — is that really so much to ask for?

**—**

"I see Hiashi got to you," Naruto says when Tenten finally returns. He reaches over and snags a creampuff off her plate, but she's still far too dazed to argue. "At least you're still in one piece, though — the first time I came to one of these Hyuuga family things, I thought he was going to strangle me with my own appendix."

She blinks quickly in an attempt to reorient herself. "Does that always happen?"

Naruto shrugs and leans back against the couch, arms folded behind his head. "Not really." He grins. "But when it does, it means he likes you."

"He must really like me, then," Tenten mutters under her breath. She catches the confusion in Naruto's eyes and elaborates, "He basically told me to have Neji's babies. Said he wants grandchildren." Her gaze falls to her pie, and she begins stabbing at it idly with her fork, if only for something to do.

Naruto laughs, and somehow it helps to relieve the tension knotting between her shoulders. "I guess it's official, then," he tells her, moving his arms over his chest as his attention drifts to some point across the room. She follows it almost unconsciously, and isn't surprised when she finds herself watching a red-faced Hinata giggling with Hanabi about something at the bar as an equally red-faced Neji sits beside them, swaying slightly in his seat. "As of now, you're an honorary member of the Hyuuga family, awkward moments and all."

His position is very similar to her own, Tenten realizes, and she smiles fondly at the thought. "Yeah," she muses. "I guess I am."

She decides, then, that it's been a pretty good Thanksgiving after all.

 


	6. Facebook Official

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**
> 
> **Chapter 6: Facebook Official**
> 
> _Because nothing ain’t official until it’s Facebook Official._
> 
> Last chapter edited and revised for the major revision! And about time, too. Major changes include an expansion regarding Tenten’s backstory (because “lol commitment issuez” just doesn’t fly with me, and I wanted to bring some of her more canonical traits — such as her hatred for any sort of weakness — into the setting of this AU, too) to help ground this story more in a “realistic” sort of way, as well as to balance the addition of a hungover Neji, which is simultaneously all kinds of hilarious and serves to explore another facet of their relationship. Speaking of a suffering Neji, I rather like how the opening and closing portions of this chapter are a bit like bookends, even if it  _is_ at the expense of my Sweet Byakugan Prince. Heh.
> 
> 11112016 | 06122016 | 4583 | [AO3](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F8373688%2Fchapters%2F19551952&t=NTE1MWZiODY4YmQ5ZGIwNTIzYWIwNjRjMmRmMWI1ODJmMTlhZWRjMixpUDZ6V0JBQw%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230598525%2Fchapter-6-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [FFN](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanfiction.net%2Fs%2F12204170%2F6%2FThe-Secret-Life-of-Teachers&t=MDJmN2M1Y2Y2ODhmM2RkMDc4YTNjNTU1ZmI4MTAxM2E3ZWVjZmQxMCxpUDZ6V0JBQw%3D%3D&b=t%3A39RCcWVTg-8CzSS6v_aTog&p=https%3A%2F%2Fshitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156230598525%2Fchapter-6-the-secret-life-of-teachers&m=1) | [tumblr](https://shitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com/post/156230598525/chapter-6-the-secret-life-of-teachers)

**—**

Despite her half-asleep and woefully under-caffeinated state, Tenten has the presence of mind to leave Neji a quick note on his pillow regarding her whereabouts before setting out from his apartment for the mall in order to indulge in a few hectic hours of Black Friday shopping.

This is what it says.  

 

> _Hey there, Sleeping Beauty —_
> 
> _I'm heading out right now to meet Lee at the mall for Black Friday. I shouldn't be gone too long, but in case you wake up before I get back I just wanted to let you know that I'm taking your keys (in case you're wondering where they went) so I can lock your door, since I doubt you'll be going out anyway. Also, there's painkiller and water on the desk for you whenever you decide to join the world of the living._
> 
> _Sorry for not waking you up, by the way. I figured you wouldn't have wanted me to anyway — you pretty much passed out the second we got back._
> 
> _— T_

Neji texts her a reply approximately two-and-a-half hours later, to her pleasant surprise, as she struggles to keep her eyes open while trailing after Lee in the crowded electronics store at the mall.

 **To: An Actual Angel**  
**From: Nerdji**  
**_Got your note. I feel like death. Thanks for the medicine, good night._**

Tenten doesn't bother sending him a response — Neji would probably want to shoot her if she did — just as she doesn't she bother hiding either the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth or the new spring in her step as she chases after Lee, despite the fatigue blanketing her senses and the bags of clothes hanging heavily from her arms.

Of course, this sudden surge of energy could just as well be due to the caffeine of her third cup of coffee finally kicking in, or the fact that she's reached that point of utter exhaustion where one finds themselves completely and inexplicably _awake_ beyond all logical reason, but a bin of DVDs marked as _Clearance_ catches her eye, then — and is she just seeing things, or is that really a copy of _Young Frankenstein_ she sees at the top of the pile, right next to the one she sees of _Space Balls_? — and Tenten promptly finds herself far too distracted to care.

**—**

She's in the middle of making a late breakfast when Neji finally shuffles into his kitchen at nearly a quarter after eleven on Black Friday, looking like death itself.

His hair is flat and hangs limply around his face, and the dark circles beneath his eyes are a stark contrast against the paleness of his skin. The cracked skin of his chapped lips looks downright _uncomfortable_ , she thinks, when he presses them together and glowers at her in a way that is admittedly mildly impressive, all things considered, and Tenten does not miss how he closes his eyes and winces when she retaliates by smiling sweetly at him and turning on his blender with a flick of her finger, the mechanical whirring of spinning blades filling the air between them.

Put simply, Hyuuga Neji is hungover, and it is _hilarious_.

"Good morning, sunshine," she says brightly when she turns the blender off a few seconds later, taking in his disheveled appearance with thinly-veiled mirth as she removes the plastic jar. "Have a good night?"

"Hn," he replies, and brushes past her for the coffee pot and mug waiting on the counter beside her.

Tenten makes sure Neji notices the way smug way she's looking at him before she turns back to her task of doling out a thick, green concoction from the blender into two tall glasses. "I hope you're hungry," she says, and slides the first glass toward him once it's full. "Nothing helps get rid of a hangover faster than coffee, eggs, and some of my special morning-after-binge-drinking smoothie."

Coffee apparently forgotten for the moment, Neji eyes his glass apprehensively. "It's green," he observes, and resumes pouring hazelnut-flavored creamer into his mug.

"Yes, it is," Tenten agrees. "How astute."

Apparently, her sarcasm is something Neji isn't especially appreciative of at the moment, if the way he glares at her is any indication. "Why is it green?"

Tenten shrugs, turns off the stove and reaches for the spatula in order to begin piling their plates with the fluffy yellow goodness of scrambled eggs. "There's kale in it."

Confusion flits over his features, then, and it amuses her far more than it probably should. "Since when have I ever purchased kale?"

"You didn't." Tenten brings their plates of egg to the dining table, along with a fork each, returning to the kitchen a moment later for her own glass of smoothie. "I grabbed it from my place before coming back over here."

"Oh." Neji follows her to the dining table, one hand gripping the curved handle of his coffee mug and the other grasped firmly around his glass. "What else is in it?"

Watching in wry amusement as he pulls out his chair and winces again when the legs screech against the tiled floor, Tenten lifts her glass to her lips and takes a sip. "Bananas, blueberries, honey, Greek yogurt, and some ice. Debated putting some coconut water in it, but you don't have any and I didn't feel like going back to my place to grab some, but it's still pretty good without it." She then fixes Neji with an expectant look, which he returns with another glare, until he breaks eye contact with an irritated huff and glances down at his glass.

" _Fine_ ," he grinds out between clenched teeth, setting his mug down and bringing the smoothie to his lips for a small, hesitant sip. His eyes widen a second later, and Tenten grins at him knowingly when he takes another, larger mouthful of the stuff.

"You're welcome," she says simply, and turns her attention to her plate of eggs. "Now eat your breakfast."

Neji rolls his eyes, but picks up his fork nonetheless once he's set his glass on the table. "Yes, _Mother_."

"How rude." She sticks her tongue out at him. "That's no way to treat someone who's gone out of their way to help cure your hangover after they woke up at four in the morning to go Black Friday shopping. You should be worshipping the ground I walk on, at the very least."

"Absolutely not," he replies frostily. "Speaking of which, I have a question: when did you change your contact name in my phone?"

Tenten grins. "Before I left." Her tone is clipped and matter-of-fact, and the sound of it makes him visibly bristle, just as she'd known it would. "Like I said, you really _should_ be worshipping me — I'll accept your offerings and prayers whenever you're ready."

Neji's only response is to stare evenly at her over the rim of his glass, and Tenten's grin widens in triumph.

**—**

If she were to be entirely honest with herself, the ease with which her relationship with Neji seems to be progressing is something that terrifies Tenten to her very core, which she attributes to commitment issues and her own skewed sense of paranoia.

The man himself has done no wrong. If anything, the way Neji's acted towards her since their initial encounter over the summer has been the most consistent thing about their relationship thus far, and whenever she looks back on their interactions following that first awkward meeting, Tenten finds herself rather hard-pressed to pinpoint the exact moment when he'd ceased treating her as a simple friend and begun outwardly expressing his interest in her as something more.

It's certainly something she's grateful for: as loathe as she is to admit it, Tenten doesn't have much experience in the ways of relationships, beyond casual dates and the one on-again-off-again boyfriend she'd had as a university student — things between them hadn't ended on the best of terms, though at least now they're civil enough towards one another — and she knows that it's this that contributes so considerably to her personal aversion to commitment. The fact that she is apparently incapable of realizing someone might actually be interested in her as something other than a good friend (which had earned her the unfortunately ironic nickname of "Captain Oblivious" during her teenaged years) is simply another facet to that aversion, and there is no doubt in her mind that if Neji hadn't explicitly told her how he viewed their relationship that morning after the Halloween party, she still wouldn't have made conscious note of his attraction to her despite everything that had passed between them the night before.

Even so, it's not escaped her notice that Neji still hasn't exactly made the nature of their relationship clear to her, beyond stating that he viewed her as his "significant other". Had he used the term definitively, his own Neji way of saying that he considered her his girlfriend? Or was he being facetious, in an attempt to clear the awkwardness between them? Then again, Tenten knows she wouldn't be surprised if he really _had_ made it clear to her, and the entire thing had just gone over her head because she'd been too dense to notice.

And that was another part of it, too, the thing about being _something_ to _someone_. She found the possessiveness of it all frightening enough in it's own right, never mind the implications it brought in the context of interpersonal relationships. Sure, she'd had almost fifteen years' worth of experience and memories with Gai and Lee to look back on fondly, and her time with the friends she'd made in college and the working world as well, but it was just a small comfort, really, in the grand scheme of things.

Occassionally, Tenten finds it — her personal incredulity surrounding the concept of actually "belonging" somewhere in a permanent sort of way — pitiful at best, and a weakness at worst. She'd been a nameless orphan leading a very lonely life for the majority of her formative years, after all, and even after being welcomed into Gai's home and heart with open arms alongside Lee, it had still taken her years to warm up to the idea of _her_ having any sense of self alongside _them_.

But there's been a silver lining to it all, at least. Tenten prides herself on the independence she'd inoculated within her as a child, and the results of her hard work surround her, no matter where she looks: her acceptance into a medical program at a prestigious university as a high school senior (even if she had left the program a year-and-a-half later, in favor of the education program), how she'd graduated without the looming shadow of paying back student loans thanks to the scholarships she'd won over the years, and with a job offer to teach in one of the most highly-accredited districts in the state, the support system of friends she's made along the way.

And it is this, in the end, that ultimately helps Tenten in her decision to approach her maybe-relationship with Neji just as she has every other hurdle in her life: directly, curiously, and the strength to overcome any obstacle she might encounter along the way, commitment issues and social obliviousness be damned.

**—**

The chance Tenten has been looking for, to prove herself in the context of her growing relationship with Neji, presents itself the week following Thanksgiving break in the form of their first real argument.

She and Shino are eating lunch in her classroom, discussing their lesson plans for the upcoming section on the cell cycle outlined in the state-wide biology curriculum when Neji suddenly shows up at her door with his arms folded tightly over his chest and the corners of his mouth pulled tight in a decisive frown.

"We need to talk," he says to her tersely before turning away and walking back to his own classroom across the hall, leaving the biology teachers sitting together in confused silence as they attempt to process what's just happened.

Behind his dark glasses, Shino's expression is unreadable. "Go ahead," he finally tells Tenten in his soft, gruff way as he reaches for his notebook and organizes his papers. "We can finish this later."

And so Tenten nods and pushes herself away from her desk, makes her way across the hall to Neji's classroom. He's back behind his desk, eating the last remains of his lunch (a simple baloney sandwich and a salad, surprisingly enough) and organizing a stack of papers when she enters, and looks up to meet her gaze when the clacking of her low black heels against the linoleum floor catches his attention.

"So," Tenten begins when she stops in front of her desk, hands on her waist and weight resting on one hip, "you said we needed to talk?"

Neji stands up, steps away from his desk and looks at her with furrowed brows and a frown. "You're wearing my sweater, Tenten."

Tenten stares at him in confusion. She'd overslept that morning (alone and in her own apartment, for once) and in her haste to get dressed for work, had pulled on the first warm article of clothing she had found — the thick gray sweater she'd taken from Neji on Thanksgiving a week prior — over her annoyingly thin white blouse without thinking much of it. Naturally, thanks to the chilly December morning, Neji himself hadn't actually seen her wearing the sweater beneath her coat, and they'd both found themselves busy once the school day had properly begun. It's an honest mistake, she thinks, and so can't help but ask, "How did you know I was wearing your sweater, anyway? You haven't even seen me all day, until now."

"One of my students last hour asked me why you were wearing it," he replies smoothly. His voice is low and measured as he steps from behind the desk to stand beside her, and she winces at the curtness with which he speaks. "She's in your anatomy class right before she comes to mine."

Drawing her lower lip between her teeth, Tenten blinks at him. "Oh," she says. "I didn't think anyone would recognize it as yours. How did you respond?"

"I couldn't very well say that you took it from my apartment after you spent the night," he says, his voice dropping to a whispered hiss lest anyone overhear them. "Somehow, though, she believed me when I said I offered it to you when you mentioned being cold in the teacher's lounge."

"Good cover-up," Tenten mutters, looking away from him when she becomes aware that she's starting to flush from embarrasment. "Look, I'm sorry about that, but — "

Neji doesn't let her finish. "Our coworkers knowing about us is one thing," he says, "but the students are another entirely — _unprofessional_ is just putting it lightly."

She scowls at him, then, as she folds her arms over her chest, fixes him with a rather impressive glare, and anger that has nothing to do with her apparent lack of professionalism begins to bubble and burn beneath her sternum. "And what _are_ we, anyway, Neji?" she demands, unsure if it's her natural aversion to commitment or something else entirely that possesses her to project as much venom into every syllable as she possibly can. "What _is_ there to know, exactly?"

He opens his mouth to respond, but the bell rings, then, and just as quickly, he clamps it shut. "We'll discuss this later," he tells her, retreating back to his desk and organizing his things in preparation for his next class.

"Sure thing," Tenten agrees, before pulling the sweater off and throwing it at Neji's face (she's too angry to straighten out the white collared blouse she'd been wearing underneath). " _We_ will."

And then she stalks back to her own classroom across the hall, too proud and hurt to turn around and see his reaction.

**—**

After school that evening, Neji follows Tenten directly into her apartment once they reach their floor of the building, instead of dropping his things off and changing out of his work clothes at his place before coming over as he usually does. She says nothing to him until he shuts the door behind them, and then she's whirling on him, her jaw clenched and arms crossed tightly across her chest. There are so many things she wants to say to him, but the words are tripping over each other in their haste to race out of her throat, and she doesn't trust herself to speak quite yet.

Glaring, she decides, will have to do.

Neji is looming over her, his expression a mirror of her own. "I can't believe you would do something as irresponsible as wear my clothes to work." His voice is just as measured as it was in his classroom earlier that day, but the words are terse and curt, and the sound of it serves to make her temper flare even more, hot enough to burn away the choked-back words lodged in her throat.

"Well, _sorry_ ," she hisses. "Like I said, I know that was a dumb move on my part, and I apologize for that. But you haven't answered my question yet, Hyuuga." And she glares up at him as intimidatingly as she can — which, if the way he almost imperceptibly flinches away from her is any indication, is moderately successful. "What _are_ we?"

He takes a deep, shaky breath, and exhales slowly; when he speaks next, Neji's voice is low. "This isn't about the sweater, is it?"

Anxiety begins to settle in her chest, and Tenten hates how it manages to creep into her voice. "No," she says. "It's not."

Discussions concerning the nature of their relationship are not things that have happened with any great frequency between them, save the one they'd had after the Halloween party and at dinner, and again once more before she'd celebrated Thanksgiving with his family — even then, nothing had really been either confirmed or denied between them. Considering one another to be "significant others" was one thing, but saying so explicitly and confirming that they were, in fact, in a proper relationship was another entirely, and hovering in the space in between had been weighing heavily on Tenten's nerves for some time, now — especially after spending Thanksgiving with Neji's family, when he hadn't bothered to correct any of his curious relatives who had asked whether she was his girlfriend or not.

More than anything, Tenten hates not knowing the exact status and nature of their relationship, particularly after everything that's passed between them in the time since the Halloween party, and it's that unspoken question that hangs heavily in the air between them.

"What do _you_ think?" Neji asks her softly. The terse edge of his voice has softened somewhat further, and he's looking at her in a way sends a shiver of uncertainty down her spine.

Tenten does not answer him immediately; she's never outright shared with him her aversion to commitment before, though she knows Neji is aware of her anxiety regarding it, is biding his time until she's ready to tell him, just as she is waiting for him to share his own story with her. It's not quite love — it's far too soon for that, she knows, never mind that there is no guarantee that it will ever come to that — but it is still certainly something more than affection and physical attraction, and it leaves her feeling breathless and dizzy and vulnerable all at once.

More than anything, Tenten _hates_ being vulnerable. For some reason, her mind always equates it as being akin to weakness, which made absolutely no sense, but it was something she'd long ago realized was an inherent part of herself, just like her sense of independence.

But this is something she can't solve on her own, simply because it involves someone other than herself (and there's that vague idea of _belonging_ , again, hiding in the shadows of _commitment_ ) and it frustrates her. She just can't seem to put a name to it, and when she risks glancing at him, she sees that same uncertainty reflected in his eyes.

And it helps.

"I don't know," Tenten answers truthfully. "I get that wearing something of yours to work is unprofessional — and that was a silly mistake on my part — but I have this feeling that's only part of it." she shrugs, and glances up at him again, more resolutely this time. "Do you not want people knowing about whatever _this_ ," and here she gestures vaguely at the space between them, "between us is? Because you can just tell me if you don't."

(It feels like an escape route, when she says that. As for _whom_ that escape route serve… Well. Tenten finds she'd rather not think about that part.)

Neji clenches his jaw, then, and leans back against the door. "I thought I told you that I considered you my significant other," he says.

"But that's not the same as explicitly stating whether or not we're officially, you know. _Dating_." There. She's said it. Tenten takes a steadying breath, steps forward, towards him, and forces herself to look him in the eye. "So? What _are_ we, Neji? I'd like to know, if only for my own peace of mind."

Lips pressed together in a thin line, Neji exhales sharply through his nose and looks down at her. "I'm not good at relationships like this, Tenten. There is a reason I've never had a serious one." He pauses for a moment, rubs the bridge of his nose with one pale, elegant finger as he searches for the words. "But I meant it when I said I considered you my significant other, and I'd like to make whatever we are work, if you are."

"You mean you weren't being facetious when you said that?" Her voice sounds odd in her ears all of a sudden, and she clears her throat, wondering if she's just imagining the wry amusement she sees in his eyes as she says that. "The part about significant others, I mean."

He folds his arms over his chest, then, and regards her coolly for a moment, and with pointed interest. "I'm never facetious, Tenten." He tilts his chin a bit, leans down until his eyes are level with her own. "Not about things like this, at least."

"Oh." Tenten blinks up at him. Her heart is still pounding, and she notes with surprise that her palms are sweaty. "Does that mean we're dating, now?"

"Yes," Neji states, and there's the barest trace of a smile on his lips. "I suppose it does."

**—**

**_Tenten_ ** **has changed her status — in a relationship with** **_Hyuuga Neji_** **.**

**—**

Within three minutes and twenty-seven seconds of changing her relationship status on all relevant social media, Tenten receives a phone call from a very enthusiastic Ino.

"Tell. Me. _Everything_."

Tenten sighs, and presses her face into her pillow. "I don't know what there is to actually tell, Ino," she says, her voice muffled. "You already know everything worth talking about."

"That isn't the _point_ , Tennie," Ino huffs. "How did he ask you? Was it super cute? Please tell me there were flowers involved."

"No, no, there wasn't anything like that," Tenten replies as smoothly as she can. "We just discussed it, and figured that it was probably time to take it to the next step and make it official."

Ino seems disappointed by her answer. "Well, that's lame," she responds flatly. "Then again, this is Hyuuga 'Mr. Emotionally Constipated' Neji we're talking about — those are Karin's words, by the way, not mine. Doing something cute like that really isn't his style, I guess."

"Well, it's not like he did absolutely _nothing_ — we only made it official about ten minutes ago, after all. We've been a bit… _preoccupied_ since then." Tenten deliberately keeps her response as vague as possible, and so it takes a moment for Ino to grasp her meaning.

"Oh my god, you're in bed with him right now, aren't you?"

" _Goodbye_ , Ino."

**—**

A nasty strain of the flu comes through the high school the second week of December, with students and staff alike falling victim to the virus.

Neji is no exception.

"I told you not to come over," he says when Tenten shows up at his door on Tuesday morning with a tupperware container of homemade chicken noodle soup before she leaves for work. "I don't want to get you sick."

"And _I_ told _you_ that I always make chicken noodle soup when flu season comes around, and that I was going to bring some over for you anyway. Besides, I never get sick." Tenten pushes past him and makes her way to the kitchen, where she sets the container on his counter and looks at him critically. "You look terrible."

He raises one eyebrow and tries to glare at her, though the effect is somewhat lost thanks to his reddened nose, pale complexion, and the messy bun he's put up his hair in. It is a far cry from his normally neat and put-together appearance (though it does bring to mind how he'd been on Black Friday, to her amusement) and if she hadn't known how miserable he was, Tenten might have laughed at how pitiful he looked at that moment. "I have the flu," he says flatly. "What did you expect?"

She shrugs. "A fair point," she says, and reaches into her purse for a rather nondescript pill bottle, which she sets on his counter beside the soup. "Speaking of which: antibiotics do nothing for a viral infection like influenza, so I brought over some ibuprofen to at least help out with the fever — did you check your temperature yet?"

Neji sighs, but gives her a nod of confirmation all the same. "It came out to be ninety-nine-point-four degrees Fahrenheit."

Tenten purses her lips and nods thoughtfully to herself, at that. "Definitely a fever, then," she says. "Take two tablets now, and then another two in about six hours. I'll let you know if you need to any more after I get home."

"I suppose I should be thankful that I'm dating a biology teacher, then," he deadpans, but he's looking at her fondly all the same, and it sends warmth searing across her cheeks and to the tips of her ears, causes her heart to pound rapidly in her chest.

"Well, _duh_ ," she counters, then, in an attempt to pointedly ignore her embarrassment as she pushes herself away from his kitchen counter and returns to the door. "Of course you should."

"Thank you for the soup," Neji tells her. He grips the blanket around his shoulders tighter and offers her a smile. "I'm sure it's delicious."

She blushes, then, and adjusts the straps of her purse for something to do; she's still getting used to this dating thing, after all. " _Obviously_ ," she says before looking up at him, and Tenten hates that she almost feels too shy to do so. "Anyway. Text me if you need anything — I'll try and get home as soon as I can after work."

He nods. "Thanks again," he repeats as he sees Tenten to the door. "I'll see you tonight."

"Yeah," Tenten says in turn, and she can't help but smile at him, then, before she leaves. "See you."


	7. The Little Things

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**
> 
> **Chapter 7: The Little Things**
> 
> _In which things are learnt: some minor, some innocuous, and some only vaguely worth of being committed to memory — all of which, however, are rather important._
> 
> Long time, no update. Sorry, guys — real life and writer's block (at least for this fic — I've written a lot of other stuff since the last update) will do that.
> 
> Anyway, before we begin, a quick message to let you guys know that I've gone through and edited the earlier chapters extensively. Aside from fixing typos and formatting errors and the like, the most major change is the addition of a few scenes here and there, as well as backstory and the foreshadowing of plot-related things. If you haven't read this story in a while, I highly recommend going back and reading everything before this chapter first — and if you can leave a review or a comment or two of feedback in your wake, I would really appreciate it! Sure, I've been building a lot of this story on my own personal headcanons and biases, but the input you guys have given in the past have had as great of an impact as well. I really appreciate it, and just want to thank all of you for sticking with this story, despite my recent inactivity with it.
> 
> Following this chapter, I'm hoping to update this story at least once a month, depending on how real life obligations and such work. When those updates will be, however, I can't say. Still, I thank you all in advance for your patience! :D
> 
> Also: the _Howl's Moving Castle_ reference is a shoutout to **ninjaellis** on tumblr, while the, ah, _inspiration_ for one of the pairings in this story (and I use the term very loosely) is inspired largely by **Giada-Luna** , because Reasons.
> 
> Unrelated, but a question: does anyone else think that _Mr. Might_ sounds like the perfect name for a professional wrestler or superhero?
> 
> 03022017 | 03022017 | 5187 | [AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8373688/chapters/21636497) | [FFN](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12204170/7/The-Secret-Life-of-Teachers) | [tumblr](https://shitty-ninja-brats.tumblr.com/post/156786161295/chapter-7-the-secret-life-of-teachers)

**—**

"By the way," Tenten begins as nonchalantly as she can, the Sunday evening before the start of the winter holidays, "Gai said he wants to meet you."

Neji glances at her from across his dining table, where he's grading a stack of review sheets from his advanced placement physics classes. "Oh?" he asks, reaching for the mug of coffee beside him, and Tenten isn't sure how to interpret the look he gives her over the curved rim of white ceramic as he takes a sip.

So she scowls at him, before turning back to the cell-cycle quizzes she's currently looking over. "That's awfully eloquent of you," she replies coolly, "considering the fact that he's pretty upset that Lee's met you and he hasn't, and part of the reason he wants to meet you at all is to make sure, and I quote, 'Hyuuga Neji is an honorable man with no ill intentions toward my beautiful, youthful lotus'."

"Oh," Neji repeats, and Tenten is somewhat amused to note the way he stiffens, at that, and how his knuckles whiten as he tightens his grip on the mug. "I see."

Tenten grins knowingly, and leans toward him, well aware of the view her loose, low-cut T-shirt offers him as she does so. "What's wrong, Hyuuga?" she asks him softly. "Could it be that your intentions toward me are less than pure after all?"

Bless him, Neji's gaze doesn't slide immediately from her face to her chest. He does clench his jaw, though, as he sets his mug back down on the dining table with a definitive _chink_ , and Tenten enjoys the way it makes the muscles of his throat stand out. "Why does everything seem to go back to our sex life, lately?"

"It's because you're a giant pervert," she counters smoothly, but she straightens up all the same.

Neji raises one elegant dark eyebrow at her. "I hope you are aware that you've done nothing but encourage that sort of behavior for the last month and a half."

Tenten snorts. "You're awfully articulate today, aren't you?" she asks, setting down her trusty purple pen and reaching for her own mug of coffee. "Anyway, you really don't have to worry about anything — Gai is basically just an older version of Lee, except with an alcohol tolerance." She watches him carefully, then, as she sips at the hot, bitter drink thoughtfully before asking, "Penny for your thoughts?"

He sighs and leans back in his chair, rubs the bridge of his nose with one finger in what she has come to understand is a habit Neji indulges in when trying to figure out how to best phrase what he wants to say, and Tenten is content to let him be until he's ready to speak.

Of course, it does little to prepare her for what he tells her a moment later.

"Naruto's proposing to Hinata."

Tenten chokes on her coffee — and, seriously, what _is_ it with her nearly asphyxiating herself on nearly every beverage she drinks, lately? — and stares at Neji with wide eyes. "What?" she asks in disbelief, even as joy and excitement begin to well up in her belly, and she sets down her mug to avoid any potential spillage that might occur. "When?"

"Christmas Eve," Neji replies, and looks at Tenten curiously, to which she raises a curious eyebrow in response.

"What now?"

"Naruto asked me if you'd be interested in being recruited to help," he explains, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table, the review sheets forgotten for the moment. "He thinks Hinata suspects something, and so wanted to know if you would be interested in directing that suspicion elsewhere."

"And what about you?" she counters. "I'd expect you, of all people, to be… I don't know, I guess I figured you wouldn't be so nonchalant about Naruto asking Hinata to marry him — you've got this whole 'scary big brother' thing down to an art form, you know."

Neji hardly seems surprised by her observation; his voice is calm when he responds. "I have a reputation to maintain."

Rolling her eyes, Tenten turns back to her quizzes, the corner of her mouth quirked in amusement. "Whatever you say, Hyuuga," she says, the silence of comfortable camaraderie settling over them once more. "Whatever you say."

**—**

As she's driving back to her apartment after work on the last day of school before winter break, Tenten realizes she must look utterly ridiculous, given how incredibly difficult she currently finds it to stop smiling for more than ten seconds at a time. She also doesn't particularly care.

She is in a very good mood, after all.

There are many reasons for this. First and foremost, of course, is the fact that it is officially winter break (because, contrary to popular belief, students are not the only ones who eagerly await the promise of reprieve offered by school holidays — their teachers anticipate them with just as much excitement, if not more so). This, in turn, is directly correlated to the second reason: with the exception of a handful of assignments, Tenten is under no obligation or stress to grade or correct anything until after the new year. Additionally, as a student herself, there is the added caveat that her own semester has come to an end — a blessing she is sure to acknowledge, given the heaviness of her own graduate school coursework over the last few weeks.

Of course, this all pales rather considerably in relation to the primary source of her immediate excitement. Which is to say, the rather assured promise of physical intimacy and closeness she is sure to share with Neji once they have both returned to the privacy of their building.

As she slows to a gradual stop at the red light before the apartment complex, breaking gently to avoid skidding across the mess of fresh, powdery snow covering the roads (it had been snowing steadily since noon, with the weather forecast promising an additional four to eight inches of the stuff, _minimum_ , by the following morning) Tenten allows herself to become lost in thought, anticipation coiling low in her belly. Due to their various obligations and responsibilities as of late, there had been no real opportunity for much in the way of the more _primal_ aspect of their relationship for nearly two weeks — which was, in her opinion, far too long indeed.

Letting herself slip into the idle thought, and Tenten reflects back to the things Neji had told her earlier that morning, when he'd greeted her at the door of her apartment with a hot, needy kiss and a promise, after he'd pulled away, eyes dark with unmistakeable desire, for a good deal more later on. It had left her breathless, then, and even now she feels her heart rate increasing, the familiar rush of epinephrine through her veins, as she recalls the various texts he had sent her throughout the day, from his classroom across the hall, listing all the things he had planned for them, each in more explicit detail than the last.

Her parasympathetic nervous system has been in overdrive all day, thanks to him.

Impatiently, Tenten squirms in her seat, fingers tapping against the steering wheel incessantly as she half-listens to the overplayed holiday music the local radio station is currently playing. Finally, the light turns green, and she steps on the gas. She can't get home soon enough.

Her phone begins to vibrate incessantly, then, announcing an incoming call, and she glances at it. _Nerdji_ flashes across the screen, and she reaches for the device where it sits in the cupholder, drawing her lower lip between her teeth in an attempt to quell the excitement in her voice. "Hello?"

She's taken rather aback, therefore, when Neji, his voice low and full of exasperation and vague petulance and mild curiosity — a far cry from the teasing and suggestive tone he'd been speaking to her with all day — says simply, "You didn't tell me you were expecting company today."

"What?" Tenten blinks, wonders briefly if she had in fact made plans with someone else earlier and simply forgotten about them. But, no, that can't be right: she'd been careful to keep that evening free for the express purpose of spending it with Neji. She steps on the break again as the entrance to the apartment complex's parking lot comes into view. "No, I wasn't expecting anyone. Why?"

"There's someone here to see you," Neji tells her. "He was already waiting in front of your door when I got here, and asked me if I knew when you would be back."

Smoothly, Tenten turns into the parking lot, navigating its familiar twists and turns as she approaches to their building. "He?" she asks. Pursing her lips, she considers all the people she knows, wonders who among them would be most likely to show up at her door unannounced. The only logical explanation for it sends a jolt of panic through her. Suddenly, she does not like where this is going. "What does he look like? What's he doing now?"

In her mind, she can see clearly the way Neji purses his thin lips at the question, the furrow of his brow as he contemplates his response. "I asked if he'd like to wait for you at my place, as opposed to standing around in a drafty hallway. I'm making him a cup of tea, now."

"Does he have a bowl cut? What's he wearing? Is Lee — oh." The building comes into view, then, and the anticipation that had been flooding her veins is promptly replaced with a sense of embarrassed foreboding when she recognizes the forest-green minivan parked nearly in one of the spaces near the path that leads to the main entrance of their building. "Oh, _no_."

Clearly, this is not the reaction Neji had expected from her. "Lee isn't here, Tenten." At least he seems to be appropriately concerned by it, now, if the carefully neutral tone he's adopted is any indication. "Is everything alright?"

With a sigh, Tenten pulls into the conveniently empty parking lot beside the green van, shifting into _Park_ and killing the engine. "As well as it can be, I guess," she mutters, removing her keys from the ignition. "I'll be up there soon, I just pulled into the parking lot. Give me a second, though, I'm going to call Lee first — and whatever you do, do _not_ , under any circumstances, tell him we're dating"

"Tenten? Are you sure everything is alright?"

Unfastening her seatbelt, Tenten begins gathering her things as quickly as she is able. Something about Neji's voice just now gives her a bad feeling that he may have already done exactly that. "Neji, meet my foster father, Might Gai."

There's a moment of silence. And then: "Oh. Oh, _no_."

Ruefully, Tenten nods, slinging her purse over her shoulder and locking the car. The _beep_ of the remote echoes almost strangely in the emptiness of the parking lot. "Yeah."

**—**

"So _you're_ the youth who's captured the heart of our fair lotus!"

Tenten winces. Whether it's due to the mentioned of her accursed pet name, Neji being called a youth (she does not appreciate the mental images the reference brings), or the blatant disregard for volume control, she can't quite tell, though she suspects it to be a combination of all three.

Either way, it does nothing to assuage her frazzled nerves.

Beside her, Neji is the epitome of calm. Of course he is. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Might," he responds politely. How he manages to say it with a straight face, Tenten will never know. "Tenten's told me a great deal about you."

At least Gai seems to like him, if the way he grins, then, is any indication. "Just call me Gai!" he booms. "Only those who wish to face me in battle refer to me as _Mr. Might_!"

Tenten snorts and takes a sip of her tea — Neji had prepared another cup for her after ending their earlier phone call. "You're not a soldier, Gai," she chides, "you're an internationally-ranked taijutsu master. How many times do I have to tell you to act like it?"

Gai's eyes seem to blaze with a sudden fire, then (or perhaps they're just sparkling with the unshed tears of youth?) and Tenten regrets it immediately. "As many times times as needed, my lotus!"

"That's not an answer!"

With a nod, Neji sets his cup, now empty, on the coffee table and leans forward, resting his elbows easily on his knees. "If you don't mind me asking, Gai," he begins. slowly, "approximately how long will you be in town for?"

"Until the new year," comes Gai's reply, "though I'm hoping to stay for a little longer, this time around." He flashes Neji a blinding grin; Tenten winces again. "I have one more obligation to attend to — there's a competition in mid-January I've been asked to judge — but following that I'll be moving back here, more-or-less permanently."

"Really?" Tenten finds herself asking. "So you've decided, then?"

Gai nods. He's still wearing his ever-present grin, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm afraid it's time for me to officially retire, and begin focusing my attention on the next generation of martial artists instead."

Her heart clenches, at that, and she swallows thickly. "I see." No matter how many times she's heard him say it, Tenten knows she will never be able to get over the circumstances of Gai's forced retirement.

Almost unconsciously, her gaze flickers from Gai's face to the mangled, twisted remains of his right leg, hidden beneath the material of his lose green sweatpants. It's hard to believe that nearly ten years have passed since the accident that incapacitated him, leaving him permanently crippled and unable to walk unaided, let alone actively participate in martial arts.

Even so, Tenten muses, taking another sip of her tea, Gai had defied the odds placed against him at every opportunity possible in the years that had passed since he'd first been informed of the severity of the injuries he'd sustained, how futile surgery would be.

Despite being told he'd never be able to stand on his own two feet unaided ever again, he had done just that, a year to the day of being released from the hospital. A year and a half following that, he had abandoned his wheelchair (though he still kept it, at Tenten's assurance), adamant that he should be able to get around, if only a bit, with the aid of a walker, and following that, a cane. Though he was no longer able to compete (a hard blow, of course, to someone so passionate and highly-ranked as he) Gai had continued to train himself — his upper body strength, now, was certainly formidable, to say the least — and make appearances as a judge at various competitions nationwide, despite the stress it placed on his body, determined to persevere no matter the circumstances.

And he had.

Still, Tenten knows Gai, and is all-too-aware that his decision to officially retire couldn't have been an easy one to make. She sets her half-full cup of tea beside Neji's, leans forward and rests her hand on her foster father's knee. She doesn't say anything, but when Gai meets her gaze, then, his eyes are brimming with unshed tears all the same.

Her own eyes grow hot, then, and she looks away from Gai, suddenly aware of the comforting weight of Neji's hand on her back. "I hope you know I'm proud of you, Gai," she tells him. If her voice is thick with emotion, no one comments on it, for which she is grateful. "I always have been."

**—**

By the time Lee finally shows up at the apartment, muscled arms loaded with bags of Chinese takeout, the weather's taken a turn for the worse, and despite their protests and exclamations of youth, both he and Gai finally agree to spend the night.

"I'm really sorry about this," Tenten tells Neji as they're rummaging through his closet for clothes Lee and Gai can wear. "I know you were, um — I know you had plans for us tonight."

Clearly not expecting an apology, Neji glances at her from the corner of his eye. "Why should you be sorry? They're your family: it's to be expected. I would have done the same for mine without a second thought." He pauses for a moment, as if in thought, and adds wryly, "Besides, you've seen my family, and put up with them — this is nothing."

With a vague sort of shrug, she fights down the blush spreading over cheeks and grabs the largest sweatshirt he owns, considering it for a moment before deciding it should fit Gai's large frame well enough, finding solace in the fact that Lee is similar enough to Neji in height and build that finding something for him to wear is far less of a challenge (even if Lee is slightly broader across the chest and shoulders, and Neji's musculature is leaner and less bulky). "That's fair enough," she concedes. "I'm still sorry, though. When I imagined you meeting Gai, it definitely did not involve him showing up here unannounced."

"I told you, it's fine." Reaching for a pair of sweatpants that look long enough to cover Gai's legs without baring his ankles, Neji looks at her pointedly. "To be completely honest, I'm quite impressed — climbing four flights of stairs is no mean feat."

He makes no mention of Gai's disability, and Tenten's heart swells with warmth for it. Even so, she can't help but tilt her head back with a groan. "He didn't take the elevator? Why am I not surprised."

"Perhaps for the same reason I found myself drawn to you in the first place," Neji suggests softly, taking a step toward her, close enough that Tenten can see the faint flecks of violet that ring his pupils, the dark shadow of stubble over his upper lip and the lines of his jaw.

Her heart begins to race, thundering against her ribcage. "Because he's a weirdo who keeps a stash of dissection kits in his apartment?" she asks, her voice a breathy whisper. Dimly, Tenten realizes that her back is pressed against the wall, and that Neji is looming over her, pale eyes dark and hungry. She does not mind.

Neji shakes his head, though the corners of his mouth lift at the memory of their first official meeting. "Because you're always moving forward — you don't let the past define you."

The sensation of his lips brushing against hers a moment later is as heady as it is brief, and a small sound of protest leaves Tenten's throat when he pulls away. She pouts. "You're such a tease."

Raising one dark eyebrow in smug satisfaction, Neji smirks down at her. "And you say _I_ am insatiable?"

"Hey." Before he steps away, Tenten wraps her arms around his waist, rests her head against his chest. The _lub-dub_ of his heartbeat is strangely comforting, even when she can't quite bring herself to meet his gaze. "Just… thanks, okay?"

Without hesitation, Neji pulls her closer, resting his chin on her head easily. "Of course."

This is how Gai and Lee find them approximately seventeen seconds later. Tenten is mortified, Neji seems relatively unruffled, and Gai and Lee begin to cry while spouting off nonsense about the blossoming of youth. Inexplicably, however, something about the entire situation just feels _right_. She tries not to think about it too much.

**—**

The rest of the night passes uneventfully, and by nine o'clock the next morning, the snow has stopped and the roads are clear.

Following breakfast, Tenten and Neji see Lee and Gai off, waiting until the pair have left the parking lot of the apartment complex altogether before looking at one another and sharing a look, and it does not take long for them to rush back up to the fourth floor of the building and lock themselves in Neji's apartment for the rest of the day, as well as a good portion of the next.

And so the holiday season begins in earnest.

**—**

Officially dating someone, Tenten comes to find, has a very interesting way of making one aware of the various idiosyncrasies and quirks unique to their significant other.

Neji, for example, always carries at least three handkerchiefs on him at all times when they're at work (one in his pocket, and the other two are kept in his bag — "Just in case.") and likes to take his coffee with cream and half a spoon of brown sugar, though he prefers green tea by far. He is almost _annoyingly_ meticulous about the state of his clothes — "Laugh all you like, Tenten: I simply _hate_ wearing anything wrinkled." — and refuses to let anything loaded with sulfates and other non-organic compounds so much as touch his admittedly luscious mane of dark, silky hair.

She learns that Neji's favorite food is herring soba, and that he has a rather strong and irrational hate for anything patterned with argyle. He lost his virginity at the first frat party he ever went to during his university years (it was also his last) and, as a child, had always wanted to be an astronaut and go to the moon.

There are other things, too, that Tenten learns and comes to admire about Neji, the more time they spend together. He's a firm teacher, but fair, and holds after-school review sessions for his students at least once a week in order help them and see that they are given all the resources necessary to succeed. Despite his curt demeanor and his status as the most recently-hired teacher in the entire school, Neji is always willing to reexplain concepts or ideas in a way that can be better understood, and Tenten really isn't too surprised to learn just how much the students love him (though she knows for a fact that many of them remain convinced that he used to be a supermodel).

She tells him just as much, a few days after Gai and Lee's unscheduled sleepover. They're at her apartment today, reading in comfortable silence, sitting at opposite ends of the couch (her legs are stretched out before her, one ankle crossed over the other as she rests her feet in his lap). Neji turns his page with deliberate slowness before glancing at her from the corner of his eye, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

"Oh?"

Tenten frowns and sticks her tongue out at him — he's partial to monosyllabic answers, too, especially when he knows they'll get a rise out of her. "I just think it's nice," she retorts, almost petulant. "You don't need to be such a smug jerk about it."

"It's hard not to be," Neji counters smoothly, "considering the sort of standards I am held to."

Pursing her lips, she considers him curiously. "What do you mean?"

Neji responds with a vague sort of shrug, setting his novel down on the floor beside the couch and stretching his arms high above his head. His shoulder pops, and he rolls it experimentally before lowering his arms, crossing them behind his head as a sort of makeshift pillow. "I have some competition, you see."

"Competition?" Tenten inquires.

"Indeed." Despite the awkward angle, he leans toward her, just slightly, and she finds her gaze tracing over the regal features of his face: the strong line of his mandible (there's more stubble than usual — Neji had uncharacteristically opted against shaving that morning) and the sharpness of his nose, the high angles of his zygomatic arches. His voice drops to a low murmur, and she finds herself edging closer to him. "One of the biology teachers across the hall from my classroom, you see. We share many of the same students, and I think they like her more than me."

There is no doubt in Tenten's mind where this conversation will inevitably end (that's another thing she's come to learn about Neji: when it comes to matters of physical intimacy, the man was quite nearly _insatiable_ , to her simultaneous exasperation and utter delight) but she plays along nonetheless, tilting her head inquisitively to one side as she pretends to consider what he's just revealed, setting her copy of _Howl's Moving Castle_ on the floor as well. "Really? Why do you think so?"

Reaching toward her, Neji rests his hand on her knee. She's wearing a pair of shorts (she prefers her apartment to be warm) and Tenten shivers when he brushes a thumb along her bare skin. "She's beautiful, for one thing," he begins, "and she is kind. It's easy to see why the students love her."

"I like her already," Tenten whispers. She's not entirely sure how it's happened, but Neji's shifted enough to hover over her on the couch, propping himself up with one arm — their lips are so close, now, that she feels his breath fanning across her cheeks with every exhalation. "This bio teacher, she sounds awesome. I can see why the students would love her."

"As do I." His eyes flicker quickly to her mouth before locking onto her own, and she feels her heart stutter at the depth of the emotion she thinks she sees in them.

It unnerves her, and she doesn't know why.

Surging forward before he has a chance to say anything else, Tenten presses her lips to Neji's, parting her mouth and using her teeth and tongue the way she knows he likes as she winds an arm around his neck to pull him close, splays her other hand over his chest.

The intended effect is instantaneous, and a low groan tears from Neji's throat. He settles his hands on her hips, gripping them tightly as he grinds himself against her, and she urges him on with a breathy, wanton moan.

Everything becomes a mess of awkward fumbling and heat after that, and Tenten allows herself to become lost in it. Afterwards, when they've straightened their clothes and caught their breath, she and Neji return to their reading with a shared look of smug satisfaction, though she finds herself wondering at the lingering glance he sends her way.

**—**

Hinata, to absolutely no one's surprise, says yes.

Regardless, Tenten thinks the entire thing is incredibly adorable all the same. Granted, she'd only seen a twenty-eight second-long video of the proposal with terrible sound quality, but it had been a full moon day, and Naruto had tricked her into believing a red wool scarf he'd hand-knitted himself was the only thing he'd gotten her as a gift that year before dropping down on one knee, and —

Well, it's just really cute, okay?

Of course, the role she's played in the entire thing has been minimal, at best. A few days before the proposal was to happen, she'd received a call from Naruto, who requested that she and Sakura spend some time with Hinata as a way of distracting her. Ino, somehow, had gotten wind of the whole affair that resulted in a largely impromptu "Girl's Night" out on the town following an afternoon of what Ino liked to call "retail therapy".

Tenten, who had finally finished re-reading her copy of _Howl's Moving Castle_ by this point, preferred to refer to it as "being a feckless spendthrift".

In any event, the night finally came to an end with Neji picking Tenten up from Hinata's house at nearly three in the morning, though he hadn't seemed particularly pleased at the notion of dragging himself away from the warmth of the apartment. It was all worth it, though, when Hanabi had called them a few days later, right after the proposal actually happened, followed by a call from Hiashi the next day formally inviting the pair of them to the local country club the following weekend, where the engagement party was to be held.

Which is how Tenten finds herself at the established venue that Saturday, primped and groomed and dressed to the nines in a sleek satin gown the color of deep jade that Hanabi had let her borrow. Neji is there too, of course, look as regal and elegant as ever in a simple black suit — he had even agreed to wear a tie and matching pocket square the same shade of her gown, though in hindsight this was probably due to the fact that Hanabi had more-or-less forced him into it.

Still, Tenten thinks to herself, watching from the corner of her eye as Neji makes small talk with some distant Hyuuga relation or another, it was nice to get dressed up like this all the same. Even if it means that people are continuously asking about the status of her relationship with Neji, and whether marriage is also something they are considering.

Tenten tries not to think about it: she and Neji had only been officially dating for less than a month, after all. Even so, it does not take long for her to grow weary of all the questions (which, in her opinion, is startlingly similar to an interrogation involving champagne and cubes of fancy cheeses) and after one particularly grueling session, excuses herself, stating a need for a glass of water and some fresh air.

It's not an untrue statement — the ballroom is stifling, and crowded with family and friends and well-wishers alike — but Neji seems to catch on to the act all the same. He rests his hand easily on the small of her back and, after making certain she first drinks a glass of water (he does the same), leads her away from the knots of people gathered around the newly-engaged couple and a good number of their friends (all of whom give them a knowing _look_ that they pointedly ignore), past the bar and to a secluded corner, near a balcony overlooking the grounds.

Grateful for the reprieve, Tenten uses the opportunity to catch her breath. She and Neji don't say much, aside from idle chitchat, but she knows it does not matter much to either of them. They fall into a companionable silence soon enough, with his arm wrapped around her shoulders as she leans into him for warmth, and she's just thinking how nice it is to just _be_ like this when the sound of dress shoes tapping smartly across the marble tile behind them catches her attention.

She's not entirely sure what compels her to do so, but Tenten turns her head in an attempt to discern the source of the sound, Neji's following out of curiosity a moment later.

Her jaw promptly drops when she does.

Like a ghost or shadow from a lifetime past, Morino Idate waves at her in a good-natured sort of way, lips curved in a well-intentioned, if cocky, smile.

"Hey there, Ten," says her former on-again-off-again boyfriend from her university days. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"


	8. Now We're Getting Somewhere

> **The Secret Life of Teachers**

> **Chapter 8: Now We’re Getting Somewhere**
> 
> _Nothing says “I’m in a relationship!” quite like running into your ex in the least expected places._
> 
> Remember what I said about apparently doing monthly updates for this fic? Yeah, clearly that didn’t happen. Though, to be fair, I was quite literally swamped by life. Also, even though I’ve had this chapter mentally written for weeks, now, I’d been quite afraid of writing it in case I fell into the trap of cliches. Which I hate. Oops.
> 
> Anyway. This chapter is a bit shorter, compared to the others, but definitely has more in terms of background information — particularly the parts where we find out exactly _why_ Idate’s appearance last chapter freaked Tenten out so much. (Which I probably hyped up more than is actually necessary, as this chapter reveals, but. Whatever.) If you need a refresher on some of the things going on here, I highly recommend going back and re-reading the older chapters again (particularly chapters four, six, and seven) to get a vague idea of some of the hints and things dropped along the way.
> 
> As has been the case with all the other chapters to day, there’s at least one pop culture reference in this one, too — can you find them all?
> 
> There’s also a little bit of a “gift” at the end of the chapter, as a thank-you to everyone who’s stuck with this story so far. You guys are honestly the best. c:
> 
> 17052017 | 17052017 | 3389 | AO3 | FFN | tumblr

* * *

Upon finding herself face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend for the first time in nearly five years, and that too while in a very intimate, albeit decent, position with another man who also happens to be her _current_ boyfriend, a handful of thoughts flash through Tenten’s mind in rapid succession. These thoughts are as follows, as per the order in which they occurred.

One: _What the heck is Idate doing here?_

Two: _This is so awkward._

Three: _Yeah, the universe definitely hates me, doesn’t it?_

It is then that Tenten realizes she should probably say something, if only to bring an end to the sheer _awkwardness_ of it all, and so she turns to face Idate fully (Neji moves with her without missing a beat), offering what she hopes is a polite-but-friendly smile. She’ll worry about any potential damage control later. “Idate, hey! What are you doing here?”

“I was in town visiting my brother for the holidays when Naruto suddenly called me out of the blue to tell me the news. He and I go way back — I’m happy for him.” Idate steps toward them, extending a hand toward Neji when he’s close enough to do so. “Morino Idate. I take it your a relative of Hinata's?”

Neji accepts it with a firm shake from his own, letting go a moment later. “Hyuuga Neji. We’re cousins, though really she and Hanabi are more like a younger sisters to me.” His hand falls gracefully to his side, though the arm around Tenten’s shoulders remains where it is. Neji seems to have no inclination to move it, either, and he continues conversationally, “From the moment I first met him, it always felt like there was never a person Naruto _didn’t_ know, somehow — I take it you and Tenten have a bit of shared history as well?”

Although she’s secretly grateful that Neji hasn’t done anything since Idate first found them to insinuate a sense of possessiveness — _yet_ — the weird testosterone-drive power-play between them is starting to get on Tenten’s nerves, prompting her to butt in unceremoniously. “We went to university together,” she explains, hoping her voice doesn’t betray her growing anxiety about the entire situation. “Naruto introduced us, actually.”

Shifting his weight onto one hip, Idate leans back and nods thoughtfully. “Is that how you two met?” he asks, and Tenten’s a bit startled to note that despite the years and their rough history she can still recognize the way he fishes for more information without trying to seem too eager. “Through Naruto, I mean.”

“Oh, no.” Neji’s pale eyes meet Tenten’s for the briefest of moments before returning to watch Idate. She notices the way his lips are curved in a knowing smirk only a moment later, and doesn’t quite know how to react when he continues on nonchalantly, “She tried to convince me she wasn’t a serial killer.”

At the expression of polite confusion on Idate’s face, Tenten hurries to amend the situation before it gets any worse. “We’re neighbors,” she clarifies, trying to ignore the way the words sound so flat and hollow in her ears, despite their veracity. “And coworkers. I dropped some of my dissection kits in the hallway, and Neji helped me get them all situated again afterwards.”

But the explanation seems to suffice, because the confusion on Idate’s face ebbs away until she’s met with his usually cocky, but affable, expression. “I see,” he tells them with a smile. Even so, Tenten does not miss the faint wariness in his eyes, the tension and awkwardness in his shoulders, and she almost sobs in relief when he nods and looks her in the eye. “I really should be getting back, though. My brother wanted to head home early — said he’s got to be at the precinct early tomorrow — and I was looking for the coat room when I thought I saw you coming out here. Didn’t want to leave without making sure or saying hello, you know?”

“Yeah.” Tenten nods, returning Idate’s smile with a tentative one of her own. She tries not to think of the way it used to make her knees week all those years ago. “I’m glad you did, though — it really has been a while, hasn’t it?”

Idate’s smile widens just the smallest bit, then, and Tenten wonders if she’s just imagining Neji tensing up beside her in response. “Yeah,” he repeats. He looks to Neji, dipping his chin slowly in a half-nod. “A pleasure meeting you, Neji.”

“Likewise.” Neji’s voice is soft and measured and as impeccably polite as always, but now Tenten knows she’s not imagining the note of curiosity in his tone. “Will you be attending the wedding?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Idate replies. “I’m moving out to Tea Country soon for work — Degarashi Port, specifically. At this point, I’m not sure if coming back to Konoha for the wedding is even feasible.” He shrugs noncommittally, smiles sheepishly. “Doesn’t mean I won’t try, though.”

Neji nods. “Then I hope everything works out for you,” he says, and Tenten finds herself taken aback by the genuine sincerity in his words.

Apparently, though, she isn’t the only one left surprised. Idate seems to be at a momentary loss for words before remembering himself, and grinning at Neji good-naturedly. “Thanks, I do too!” he returns, before his gaze shifts back to Tenten. “So, I guess I’ll see you around, then?”

 _Captain Oblivious_ she may be, but Tenten prides herself on having enough social awareness to know when she is the one being specifically prompted for some kind of response. “Yeah,” she tells him. “See you later.”

“Yeah.” Idate takes a step back, turning fluidly on his heel after sending one last, lingering glance in Tenten’s direction. “Later.”

Neji says nothing, and remains silent at Tenten’s side until Idate has disappeared back into the hustle-and-bustle of the main ballroom, when he glances down at her and asks softly, “Are you alright?”

Tenten nods and leans back against his side. She rests her head on his shoulder, suddenly drained. “Just a little tired,” she confesses. “Would you get in trouble if we called it an early night and left now?”

A sudden, sharp exhalation is the only physical manifestation of Neji’s apparent amusement, then, as he pulls Tenten closer and presses a kiss to her temple. She feels him smile against her skin, and her heart does that weird fluttery thing once again. “I highly doubt it — in fact, I think my uncle assumed something like that might happen.”

“Good.” Tilting her head back, she brushes her nose against the column of Neji’s throat. “Then let’s go home — these heels are _killing_ me.”

Neji laughs openly, this time, and Tenten relishes in the way her position allows her to _feel_ it as a deep rumbling in his chest. “As you wish.”

* * *

It all began Tenten’s second year of college.

“He was a year above me,” she begins over breakfast the next morning, fingers wrapped tightly around the handle of her coffee mug. Her stomach is tying itself into knots from nerves. “I met him through Sakura and Naruto their freshman year — Sakura and I had a couple of classes together and ended up getting along well, and you already know that she and Naruto have been friends since they were kids. Idate was the residential advisor on Naruto’s floor.”

Neji’s expression seems carefully neutral as Tenten explains how she and Sakura had been invited to play video games with Naruto just after midterm exams that fall semester, and how Idate had joined them later that evening, at which point Tenten had completely _thrashed_ him while playing _Mortal Kombat_. He’d subsequently challenged her to rematch after rematch over the next few weeks, their growing friendship eventually culminating in a night of very physical intimacy just before the final exams of the semester.

“Since we both got really busy with studying and work and stuff, we didn’t really get a chance to talk about it. Looking back, I know that in my case it had a lot to do with the fact that I just didn’t know _how_.” Tenten bites the inside of her cheek nervously, carefully training her gaze away from Neji. “I mean, it was the first time I’d ever…” she trails off, unsure how to continue, but the implication made very clear.

“What happened next?” Neji asks, his tone as flat and passive as the expression on his face.

Tenten’s throat suddenly feels very tight, and she takes a long sip of her coffee in an attempt to alleviate it — which it does, if only marginally. It isn’t the first time she’s told this story, and she suspects that it won’t be the last. Even so, there’s something about relating it to _Neji_ that leaves her every nerve on edge. “We talked about it — what happened that night — after finals, and started dating at the beginning of the winter semester.”

Reaching for his own mug of green tea, Neji nods. “Were you together very long?”

“Almost two years,” Tenten reveals. Her mug meets the surface of the coffee table with a muffled _chink_. “But consistently? Not really.” They’ve reached the part where she generally starts to get fidgety during her retellings, and she observes Neji warily as she continues. “It was my first serious relationship, and I was only nineteen when we started dating. I had no idea what to do, or expect.”

Neji clenches his jaw, and one of his _masseter_ muscles fairly jumps beneath his skin in response. “He didn’t… _do_ anything to you, did he?”

She gapes at him, then, fairly aghast at the implication. “Of course not!” she snaps, more forcefully than intended. And then, more gently, “But…”

At least Neji doesn’t seem too terribly fazed by her reaction. In fact, his posture relaxes noticeably, and he leans forward, setting his mug down and resting his elbows on the dining table. “But something happened,” he concludes, reaching across the table and taking her hands in his. “You don’t have to tell me what if it makes you uncomfortable, Tenten, but please let me know if there is something — _anything_ — I can do for you that will help.” His thumb brushes across her knuckles soothingly; the action makes Tenten want to cry.

But she fights it, shakes her head vigorously. “It’s okay,” she assures him. “Sure, Idate and I weren’t on the best of terms when it ended, but we ended up moving on and becoming civil with each other in the end.” Tenten smiles, squeezes Neji’s hands reassuringly. “Last night was just unexpected, that’s all — I mean, can you imagine randomly encountering your ex for the first time in five years while in the arms of the person you’re currently seeing?”

Neji returns the smile, but it is hesitant, and Tenten is all-too-aware of his caution when he ventures his next question. “What happened?”

Tenten shrugs, and gives up on her attempt of quelling her overactive nerves — it was probably better to just get it all out in the open, anyway. “Like I said, Idate was an RA, and he had his own obligations and duties for that in addition to his coursework. Poor guy barely slept! And I was having my own crisis of faith, too, since I was stressing out about changing majors and how that would affect my scholarships and academic career. It didn’t help that Gai was still in physical therapy, either, and Lee was just starting to transition too. And even without all that, we were pretty on-again-off-again to begin with; honestly, I think it was just a lot of different things at once.” She pauses, inhaling a deep, steadying breath as she chooses her next words carefully. _It’s now or never._ “And then I got pregnant.”

A long, tense moment passes, then, as Neji takes in her words. She watches warily as he closes his eyes, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding when he opens them and his pale, steady gaze meets her own. “Is that when you two broke up?”

“More or less,” Tenten reveals. “We both agreed on getting an abortion, since neither of us were in a position to take care of or raise a baby. And he came with me, too, to the appointment.” She grows quiet as memories begin to surface, one by one. “It was just never the same, though, after that. We just… drifted apart, I guess. Breaking up was inevitable.”

It is only when Neji resumes stroking his thumbs against her knuckles soothingly that Tenten realizes he hasn't pulled his hands away from her. The thought is strangely comforting, sending a flurry of warmth rushing through her body, from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes, and it is as if the weight of the things she hasn’t said — the guilt she still feels at the loss of her child, her insecurities regarding relationships, the fear of commitment and belong — begin to melt away. “You said you didn’t end things on the best of terms,” he begins. “I won’t ask you what happened — that’s your information to share as you see fit, and I’m honored you trust me enough to share all of this with me — but I do have one more question, if you don’t mind answering it.”

“Go ahead,” Tenten says unthinkingly. “It’s all in the past, now. It took time, but I got over it. I’m okay, now.”

Neji’s thumbs continue their gentle caress across the ridge of her knuckles, the flat expanse of the backs of her hands. “Are you happy?” he murmurs. “With me. And in general, as well, I suppose. Are you happy?”

Her heart flutters in her chest at the words, and Tenten brings their clasped hands to her mouth, pressing her lips against his skin. “Yes,” she tells him earnestly. “I’m happy.”

* * *

“I am _so_ not happy.”

Beside her, Neji grumbles in agreement. “Misery certainly does love company.”

Tenten snorts. “Misery doesn’t _need_ company,” she tells him, “and neither do I, for that matter. What are you still doing here?”

Casting a sideways glance at her from the corner of his eye, Neji raises one elegant eyebrow in thinly-veiled amusement. “Are you really that eager to get rid of me?”

“If I’m being honest? No.” She smiles up at him cheekily, raising herself onto her toes and pressing a kiss to the underside of his jaw. “But if I’m being pragmatic, then yes. Weren’t you the one who said you wanted to get right back into the thick of things for your advanced placement students once the holidays ended? You can’t really do that if you’re late the first day back.”

Neji smirks. “By my watch, we still have roughly forty minutes before the school day begins in earnest, so neither of us are in any danger of being late. Besides, it’s easier for you to just get a ride with me once the tow truck arrives to take your car to the shop.”

She groans. “Don’t remind me, please — it’s too early to think about how much repairs are going to cost.”

“In that case,” comes the reply, “I won’t. Instead, I’ll give you some news: I think the tow truck is finally here.”

Tenten blinks at him before gazing around excitedly. “Seriously?” she asks.

She almost misses the way Neji smiles at her warmly, then. “Cross my heart.”

It’s the first day of school following the end of the holidays, and Tenten’s old second-hand car had decided that today would be the perfect day to _not_ work. Neji had offered her a ride to work the moment it had become obvious she wouldn’t be able to drive herself, but quite some time had passed before the tow truck they’d called had come to pick up the vehicle and they’d finally been able to leave for school.

A glimmer of fortune seems to be shining on them, however, and somehow they make it to school just scant minutes before the first bell of the school day is due to ring. Unfortunately, that seems to be the extent of their good luck, because when Neji and Tenten finally rush into the science hallway of the school — panting, red-faced, and out-of-breath — they find themselves greeted by the knots of students waiting for them in front of their respective classrooms.

A long moment of awkward silence passes, then, before Neji has the presence of mind to clear his throat, eyeing his class in a pointed and no-nonsense sort of way as he shoves a hand in his pocket for his keys. “No one came to unlock the doors for you?”

“Principal Iruka just left to go find the janitor!” one student states, stepping aside to allow Neji through. It is then that Tenten realizes her own class is waiting for her to do the same, and with a start she reaches into her purse for her own set of keys, stepping toward her own classroom with as much grace as she can manage.

“But he told you guys we were going to be late, right?” The key slides into the lock easily, and a heartbeat later Tenten is opening the door to her classroom. She waits for her biology class to trickle in before she follows, closing the door behind her.

There’s a collective nod amongst the students as they take their seats, pull notebooks and folders and pencils out of their backpacks. “That really sucks, though, Ms. T. About your car, I mean,” says a voice from the back of the classroom.

“Language, kid.” Tenten sets her purse down beside her desk, shrugs off her jacket and hangs it over the back of her chair. “Thanks, though. Anyway, let’s get the ball rolling — go ahead and get into your partner pairs for the unit pre-quiz, I just need a minute to get things set up, here.”

Minutes later, a sense of normalcy falls over the classroom as the sound of pencils scribbling across paper fills the air, and the rest of the period continues on as usual. Class ends forty-seven minutes later with the ringing of the bell, and as the students begin to pack their things and file out of the classroom, Tenten lets out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, relieved and simultaneously somewhat inexplicably disheartened by the fact that not even one one of them had asked why Mr. Hyuuga had been the one to give her a ride to school that day.

* * *

Biting back a gasp, Tenten tightens her hold on Neji’s shoulders, uncaring of the way her nails scratch and dig into the pale skin. Not that he cares about that, either — both of them are all-too-aware of just how much he likes _that_.

In fact, Neji likes it enough to move all the more frantically, to which Tenten responds by gripping him even tighter and dragging her hands up and down his muscled back (or, alternatively, by sinking her teeth into the crook of his neck), which just spurs him on even further, continuing the pseudo-positive feedback loop until a Tenten can’t quite tell where she ends and Neji begins, when a certain level of completion and satiation is reached and they settle back down onto the bed in a panting and contented tangle of limbs.

“Do you have plans for this Friday?” Neji asks once his breathing is steady enough, tracing idle patterns across her stomach and hips.

Tenten purses her lips and considers her mental calendar. “As of now, not really. Temari and I were going to meet up to discuss stuff for the upcoming volleyball season, but we really should do that sooner rather than later anyway.” She grins at Neji knowingly. “Why, do you have something in mind?”

With a shake of his head, Neji turns toward her, pressing a kiss to the hollow of her throat. “My uncle does, actually, though he did tell me he’d be delighted if you decided to attend.”

“That depends, doesn’t it?” She fights back the urge to laugh when Neji blinks and his eyelashes flutter against her skin. “What’s the occasion?”

“My father’s birthday.”


End file.
